by Robin Goins

Created on: July 10, 2008

Cognitive Psychology
The Brain and its Role in Memory
Within the human brain it-self is the function of memory, which in essence is the way in which information is encoded, retained, and then recalled in order to process current information. It is this process that allows us to draw on past information and experiences in order to respond to situations on a current level, and it is from this as well in which our perceptions stem (Sternberg, 2006). Key to this process is a portion of the brain called the hippocampus, and which plays a pivotal role in the process of memory, and is the area of the brain within the cerebral cortex where the different sensations we experience are processed and then stored. This is particularly important in terms of episodic memories, which is where our personal experiences and the important events of our lives as stored for retrieval, and which are "established" within the hippocampus (Buzsaki, 2005). The hippocampus encodes the "declarative information" it receives by "integrating and consolidating" the information and then works in the transfer process of that information into the long-term memory, also known as the information we know or learn (Sternberg, 2006).

The memory process first begins with sensory information first being encoded within the brain, and then organized within the memory system in a manner in which representation is assigned to that information. Once the information is encoded, it can then be organized and stored within the various levels of the memory system for later retrieval. These are three distinct stages that occur, and depending on what school of thought subscribed to, the information is transferred through the neurons in the brain and the memory stores that information into our memory system to be used by our working memory. It is these networks of neurons within the hippocampus that is thought to link the spatial navigation system to episodic memory, which originated within the hippocampus itself (Buzsaki, 2005).

The hippocampus is "considered a single giant cortical module with rich recursive excitatory connections" (Buzsaki, 2005, p.1). These connections, also known as neurons, within the hippocampus work in different combinations or networks, and it is this "ensemble" of place cells within the hippocampus that form a map within our memory, which we later follow when retrieving stores information (Buzsaki, 2005). These maps are carefully encoded so that no interference within the memory process are

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