The long-term memory is a part of our memory. It is responsible for storing information over a long period of time. This includes the ability to retrieve this information.
It is distributed to different areas in our brain and can roughly be divided into two forms. These depend on the type of information that is stored. The so-called declarative memory is responsible for storing facts, such as recipes. The procedural memory, on the other hand, stores unconscious processes, such as the ability to ride a bicycle. Long-term memory is very complex and many processes are not yet fully understood.
How does long-term memory work?
The functioning of long-term memory sometimes involves very complex processes that are still not fully understood today. Every day, every person is surrounded by millions of impressions and information. A large part of this information is not stored, but immediately sorted out again.
Otherwise, the brain would be flooded with many unimportant things, so to speak. Only a part reaches the memory accordingly. This is initially the short-term memory and after further sorting out the so-called working memory.
The latter can store information for minutes up to months, depending on its importance. If certain information, such as vocabulary or the text of a song, is regularly repeated or even practiced, it can be transferred to the long-term memory. This works especially well when the information is associated with intense feelings, as is often the case with song lyrics, for example.
Now the lyrics can be stored for years, even for life, depending on their importance and use. This process is a way of learning. To understand what happens in the brain, it should be mentioned that there are many nerve cells in our brain that are connected to each other.
The more connections there are between them, the more information can be transmitted and stored. Accordingly, when information is learned and stored in long-term memory, new connections between nerve cells, also called neurons, are established. There is no known limit to the amount of information that can be stored in our long-term memory.
So if a person cannot remember something, it is not because the information is no longer there, but rather because it has been stored incorrectly and can no longer be found. The long-term memory can be divided into two forms. The so-called declarative memory stores various information, such as recipes, professional or biographical knowledge.
This information is recorded via an intermediate station, the hippocampus (a structure of the brain), and is passed on during the night while sleeping. The so-called procedural memory, on the other hand, is responsible for storing unconscious, i.e. automatically running, processes. It enables us, for example, to ride a bicycle without having to think about how this works. There is no stopover here; practicing cycling is, so to speak, itself the storage of this information.
