I have no clue. So let’s see just how it works.
The hippocampus is in charge of the most cognitive duties. It’s the part that holds all those precious sweet memories of a childhood in the sun with your toys and buying ice cream from the dirty man in his mid-30s that always wears a Metallica t-shirt with the sleeves cut off who your parents insist on accompanying you to buy from.
The cerebellum is the reason you can add numbers and swim. It monitors the procedural based memories of circumstances that must be learned, well, procedurally.
The amygdala is associated with emotional learning. My amygdala just learned not to give my heart to a crazy witch. She was sitting outside the local potion shop with a raggedy old cardboard box that had “Need Harts” scribbled across it in pitch black sharpie. Being the level 4 knight that I am, I offered mine, but how was I supposed to know the consequences? Man, it took at least 4 monks to heal that back up.
The craziest part to all of this, is that the information that your brain receives in order to hold these memories, is nothing more than an electrical pulse. There is electricity traveling through your body that zaps your brain in a specific way so that you can have a memory. That’s pretty awesome. [via]