The Anatomical Perspective of Memory: a Review Article

Abstract

Memory has been defined as the process of encoding, storing, consolidating, and retrieving information. Studies in cognitive neuroscience have demonstrated that memory is a dynamic property of the brain as a whole, rather than being localized to any single region. Memory is critical to humans and all other living organisms. The science of memory began in 1885 with Hermann Ebbinghaus. Memory has been classified into many subtypes depending on its persistence, the contents of its stored material, and the presence or not of consciousness during learning and memory. Memory networks are integrated by specific anatomical structures such as the hippocampus, cerebellum, amygdala, frontal lobes, temporal lobes, entorhinal cortex, and basal ganglia. Memory improvement techniques known as mneumonic devices include: method of loci, Pegword method and PQ4R method. The puzzling phenomena of memory retrieval include: Déjà vu, Jamais vu, Flashbulb memories and Tipof-the-tongue State. Disorders of memory known as amnesia could be functional or organic and include other conditions such as Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, Korsakoff syndrome, infantile amnesia, etc. It is recommended that more studies be carried out on the anatomical structures that are associated with memory.