How your brain remembers The injured brain we might hope for a better one, or wish that someone else's wasn't so good. However, like it or not, our memory is an archive of our life's experiences, a personal history that defines who we are and what we are about. The memories we've stored, for better or worse, impact our lives every day. They help us make decisions and guide us as we forge ahead into the future. "Memory" describes processes in several parts of the brain's regions and structures by which experience and information are stored and recalled, both intentionally and automatically. In early development, memory is almost synonymous with learning and contributes to everything from education to judgment to social interactions. According to the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, science is only beginning to understand what happens in your brain when you remember something, but the evidence is that memory involves improving the communication between brain cells. Still unsettled is how information flow between cells improves -- whether their connection strengthens or the individual brain cells change their properties.