Q: How are memories stored and retrieved?

A: Two little brain organs, the hippocampi, are located in the subconscious mammalian or 2nd brain layer. One on each side of the brain. During sleep, if you get enough for your brain, each hippocampus is busy moving information that you learned while you were awake, from short-term to long-term memory in a process known as consolidation. These organs also make decisions about what to transfer based on what they think if important to you, and what you are interested in. The hippocampi also function as search engines. When you want to recall something, they will start searching your long-term memory banks, much as you search the Internet, trying to retrieve what you want.