Memory storage is idiosyncratic and strangely disjointed. The mind breaks each memory into its component parts – names, faces, locations, contexts, how a thing feels to the touch, even whether it is living or dead – and sends the parts to different places, then calls them back and reassembles them when the whole is needed again.19 A single fleeting thought or recollection can fire up a million or more neurons scattered across the brain.20 Moreover, these fragments of memory move around over time, migrating from one part of the cortex to another, for reasons entirely unknown.21 It’s no wonder
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