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Long-term memory acts more like a hard drive, physically recording past experiences in the brain region known as the cerebral cortex. The cortex, or outer layer of the brain, housed a thicket of 10 billions vine like nerve cells, which communicate by relaying chemical and electrical impulses. We can will things into long-term memory simply by rehearsing them. But the decision to store or discard a piece of information rarely involved any conscious thought. It’s usually handled automatically by the hippocampus, a small, two winger structure nestled deep in the center of the brain. Like the keyboard on your computer, the hippocampus serves as a kind of switching station. As neurons out in the cortex receive sensory information, they relay it to the hippocampus. If the hippocampus responds, the sensory neurons start forming a durable network. But without the act of consent, the experience vanishes forever.