The Making of a Memory

How does the brain transform a fleeting experience into a memory that can last a lifetime? For more than a century, scientists have searched for the physical basis of memory, the changes in the brain that allow us to remember people, places, and events. These elusive memory traces, often called “engrams,” were once purely theoretical. Today, advances in neuroscience allow researchers to identify the specific brain cells involved in storing memories and even to reactivate them. In this talk, I will explore how memories are formed, stored, linked together, and sometimes forgotten. Drawing on discoveries from studies in both animals and humans, I will discuss how memories shape our identity, how they can become distorted, and what happens when memory processes go awry in conditions such as dementia and post-traumatic stress disorder. Understanding memory not only reveals how the brain works but also provides insight into what makes us who we are.