Key points How can something consisting of three pounds of fat, water, protein, carbohydrates, and salts outperform the most powerful computers in the world? Neurons, approximately 171 billion, give or take a few. From the moment we are born, the brain functions as a vacuum cleaner, sucking in data from everything it encounters, storing it for future use, developing connections, and making hypotheses. And then, miraculously, we walk and talk—two very complex behaviors that require an incredibly long list of steps. How Memories Control Everyday Behaviors Our interactions, from the most complicated to the simplest, depend upon memories—blueprints the brain uses to guess how to do something for the first time or automatically for the 100,000th. For example, you might be motivated to replace an electrical faceplate because you were shocked when you touched a bare wire as a child. You only used a screwdriver once three years ago. Still, relying on that memory, you insert the screw into the hole, point side down, pick a Phillips screwdriver from the toolbox, grasp the handle, align the head of the screwdriver with the screw, and then turn the screw clockwise. How were you able to accomplish this complicated task? Your brain searched for a […]