quotes from some recent papers
"Both long- and short- term memory are composed of three processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval (
. These processes take place in various locations in the brain, often simultaneously. Not much is known about the physiology of long-term memory, although scientists speculate that the hippocampus is involved in the
creation of long-term memory. It is unclear where long-term memories are stored, although there is some evidence that a single memory may be broken down into various elements and stored in many places at once. As Irving Kupferman explains, "long-term memories are stored in multiple regions throughout the nervous system. (In other words, they are not localized but stored through circuitry)" (7). Furthermore, "reflexive and declarative memory formation may involve different circuits in the brain. Reflexive memory relies on the cerebellum and amygdala; formative, on the hippocampus and temporal lobes as well as the cortex" (7).
"Since the 1970's, scientists have speculated that the prefrontal cortex, located in the forehead area of the brain, plays a central role in working memory. (1). Experiments using PET scans and functional MRI on primates, coupled with observations of human brain injuries, point to the fact that "the prefrontal cortex always seems to be "busy" when target information is kept "in mind" (1). Writer Tim Beardsley explains, "with neural connections to almost all the areas of the brain that process sensory information, [the prefrontal cortex] is well situated to maintain a flexible store of information relevant to any task at hand" (1).
Neurologist Patricia Goldman-Rakic of Yale University has begun to map the various areas of the prefrontal cortex into various regions associated with the different senses. Her laboratory has found evidence that information about spatial location is confined to the sub-region of the prefrontal cortex, while processes related to visual appearance are in a separate area below that. Her findings, however, are still controversial (1).
Short-term memory is the subject of various other arguments as well. "Short-term memory...may be either plastic or dynamic in nature, and this is still a matter of debate. In the plastic scenario, short-term memories are formed by brief changes in synaptic transmissions. In the dynamic theory, it may arise out of a reverberating feedback circuit, where a memory is held electrically within a loop. Thus, no physical changes are made, and synaptic connections are not modified. " Long term memory, [on the other hand,] may be encoded by plastic changes in existing synapses" (7).
i have a couple very interesting papers from pubmed if you would like further reference.
and here is the post that destroys your ridiculous claims even further
We played music in the scanner [fMRI], and then we hit a virtual 'mute' button," says first author David Kraemer, a graduate student in Dartmouth's Psychological and Brain Sciences Department. "We found that people couldn't help continuing the song in their heads, and when they did this, the auditory cortex remained active even though the music had stopped."
The researchers say that this finding extends previous work on auditory imagery and parallels work on visual imagery,
which both show that sensory-specific memories are stored in the brain regions that created those events. Their study, however, is the first to investigate a kind of auditory imagery typical of everyday experience.
