Latin for sea horse
It controls memory formation - It decides which memories to form
The hippocampus stores explicit memories, which are of two types:
- Episodic memories - Memories of events
- Semantic memories - Memories of facts
Both memories are initially stored as short-term memories. Over time, some of them become long-term memories that are stored in the neocortex
What decides what memories become long-term?
When we learn something at first, it becomes an episodic memory - You don’t remember what you learned but when you learned it
Over time, it translates into a semantic memory - You now remember what you learned rather than when you learned it
- Repetition - The same neural pathways are being repeatedly activated
Spaced repetition is powerful. This is where we repeatedly activate the same neural pathways in intervals. That’s how we form more long-term semantic memories
Info
Much of the short-to-long term memory encoding and memory formation happens dominantly during sleep
- Reward or Motivation - The reason for learning what we’re learning The prefrontal cortex and amygdala form the Reward System in your brain