The brain controls our bodily functions by acting as a central command center and relaying signals through our central nervous system and our peripheral nerves.
The brain manages everything we do from voluntary movements and sensory processing to automatic and life sustaining organ operations including digestion, breathing and our heartbeat.
Our brain directs these processes through several specialized regions, which includes the brainstem, cerebrum, cerebellum and the hypothalamus.
The brainstem, is located at the base of our brain and regulates essential and involuntary life functions, which include breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and swallowing.
The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain and controls voluntary actions like walking or speaking, interprets sensory information like touch and vision and also manages conscious thought and memory.
The cerebellum is positioned at the back of our brain and monitors and coordinates voluntary muscle movements, posture and balance and ensures physical actions are smooth and precise.
And the hypothalamus is a small deep structure, which serves as our body's thermostat and internal regulator, and it influences automatic functions through our nervous system and triggers hormone release to manage hunger, thirst and sleep cycles.
As for storing memories, the brain stores memories by encoding the memories as distributed physical changes across a vast network of billions of neurons, instead of storing the memories as fixed files in just a single location in the brain.
The process of the brain storing memories is driven by specific biological structures, which include the hippocampus, the neocortex and the amygdala.
The hippocampus part of the brain acts as a master indexing as well as sorting center and it also evaluates incoming sensory information and binds fragmented pieces of memory like sounds, sights and emotions into a single file.
And the neocortex, "the outer layer of the brain" is where your long term memories are ultimately stored in fragments, like visual memories in your visual cortex.
And then the amygdala attaches any emotional significance to your memories, which also helps your brain determine which experiences are worth keeping.
Memories are also formed and also maintained by altering of how the neurons communicate with one another, which involve, synapses, synaptic plasticity (LTP) and memory trace (Engram).
Synapses are the tiny gaps between your brain cells, where electrical impulses trigger the release of chemical messengers.
For synaptic plasticity or (LTP), when you learn or experience something that is new, your brains neurons that are involved fire at the same time.
And a principle called long term potentiation or (LTP) strengthens these specific connections by growing new receptors as well as physical branches or spines.
And for memory trace or (Engram), the memory is stored as this newly strengthened pattern of synchronized activity.
The way memories are saved and recalled by the brain is involves.
For consolidation of memories and saving the memories in the brain, your brain "runs" new short term memories on feedback loops between your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, especially during sleep.
This chemical and structural reinforcement also etches the memory into long term storage.
And for retrieving the memories, recalling a memory reactivates your original network of neurons.
Because of this activation physically unblocking the neural pathway, your memory becomes malleable again and can also be updated with new context or emotions before being stored once more.