Memory in Neuroscience

Neuroscience studies memory as a biological process distributed across brain systems, circuits, cells, and synapses. It asks how experience changes the nervous system and how those changes support later behavior.

Core terms: consciousness, attention, nonconscious processing, hippocampus, neocortex, engram, neuroplasticity, neuron wiring, neural circuit, synapse, synaptic plasticity, long-term potentiation, encoding, consolidation, systems consolidation, reconsolidation, retrieval, salience, decay, extinction.

Terms that change meaning across fields: memory, trace, activation, consolidation, retrieval, forgetting.

Return to the Canonical Memory Glossary.