How does the brain learn? I wish we really knew! Studies have helped to uncover information about how the brain learns best, but that’s a different variation. Suffice to say, a common concern for human brains involves how to learn and how to recall what has been learned. In the main, humans the globe over want their brains to be able to store, retain, and recall information and experiences for as long as possible. Potential memory loss remains a key concern of older adults as they move through their life cycle.

Many types of memory have been identified and named. For example, short-term memory and long-term memory, declarative memory and nondeclarative memory, episodic and semantic memory, photographic and autobiographic memory, creative memory, direct and indirect memory, working memory and (as one person put it) forgotten memory, and déjà vu, to name just a few. Hovering over and around the concepts of learning, memory, and cognition is cultural neuroscience, a relatively new discipline that tries to make sense of what is being learned about the brain and cognition against the backdrop of culture, often utilizing various brain imaging modalities.

And then there’s the whole genre of cellular memory, of interest to most folks who have received an organ transplant or who are hoping to do so (to say nothing of the people who live with and interact with them).

These Brain References include information about the brain and learning and the brain and memory.