The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. One July afternoon in 2024, Ryan Williams set out to prove himself wrong. Two months had passed since he’d hit upon a startling ...

Memory is a continually unfolding process. Initial details of an experience take shape in memory; the brain’s representation of that information then changes over time. With subsequent reactivations, ...

Some researchers suggest these are not distinct types of memory, but rather stages of memory. In this view, memory begins in sensory memory, transitions to short-term memory, and then may move to long ...