The Importance of Memory in the Hippocampus

The name of your fifth grade teacher is stored deep in the structure of your brain. When I ask you to recall it, you're actually transferring it from that structural form into activity,. And that's how you're remembering the name of your teacher. Now, when you're done remembering it, it has to get reconsolidated back into its physical form. If you get hit in the head during that moment, it's gone. It's been transferred from the physical to the, you know, activity in spikes.