My Memory Lane

Why can we replay memories? How does the brain keep these memories?

I just wanted to know why I always like to remember good memories, and why I can remember them and replay them again in my head. Why does the brain do this? How does it do this?

Public Comments

1. well you can always remember the really good or really bad memories. its because they had a major impact on you. memories have to go through the short-term memory first before your brain can put themin the long term which is the one you visit when you recall old memories. its capacity is unlimited unlike the short term which only captures the resent stuff you are seeing or sensing or the stuff you are repeating... so because your memories are so good that means your brain senses that feeling and allows you to store and see it over... hope this answers your question...
2. At a slightly deeper level the brain stores memory by making connections (to allow electrical impulses) between neurons. The "experience" is thus hard coded by a series of connections. The brain is a complex neural network. Neural networks are amazing things in which the network adapts to the incoming signals. In the case of the brain visualize the workings as: 1/The brain receiving a load of electrical impulses. (i.e. You experience an event) 2/These electrical impulses flow through the brain and also alter the brains neurons connections. How much the network is altered may be dependent on how the network processes the signal. (i.e. The brain interrupts the event and stores this event in details set by it's importance) 3/Later the brain sends an impulse that triggers the modified network which recreates a similar signal to that made in step1. (i.e.Some thought trigger the memory of that event) Hope that's some help