Topic

Learning, Memory & Thinking

Kinds of memory and how they are made, attention, language, decisions, executive control, intelligence and the brain's GPS.

10 articles

Learning, Memory & Thinking Intermediate Intelligence and the Brain What IQ tests measure, the 'g' factor, how brain size and networks relate to intelligence, genes and environment, the Flynn effect — and the myth of Einstein's extraordinary brain. September 4, 2026 · 3 min read

Learning, Memory & Thinking Intermediate Decision-Making and the Brain How the brain weighs options: value signals in the orbitofrontal cortex, dopamine-driven learning, emotions as guides (Damasio's somatic markers), and the shortcuts and biases studied by behavioural economics. August 18, 2026 · 3 min read

Learning, Memory & Thinking Intermediate Language and the Brain From Broca and Wernicke to modern networks: how the brain produces and understands speech, reading, sign language and multiple languages — and what aphasia, dyslexia and FOXP2 reveal. July 13, 2026 · 3 min read

Learning, Memory & Thinking Advanced How Memories Are Made: LTP and Engrams Long-term potentiation, NMDA receptors, AMPA receptor insertion, protein synthesis and memory engrams: the cellular and molecular basis of learning — and how scientists have reactivated specific memories with light. July 7, 2026 · 3 min read

Learning, Memory & Thinking Advanced Place Cells, Grid Cells and Navigation The brain's positioning system in detail: place cells, grid cells, head-direction cells, border and speed cells, theta rhythm and phase precession — and how navigation circuits may support memory and abstract thought. July 3, 2026 · 3 min read

Learning, Memory & Thinking Beginner Forgetting and False Memories Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve, why spacing beats cramming, how leading questions rewrite memories, and Elizabeth Loftus's 'lost in the mall' — why confident memories can be wrong. June 8, 2026 · 3 min read

Learning, Memory & Thinking Beginner Types of Memory Sensory, working and long-term memory; episodic, semantic and procedural; explicit and implicit — a map of memory systems and the brain regions behind each. May 11, 2026 · 3 min read

Learning, Memory & Thinking Intermediate Attention The cocktail party effect, the spotlight of attention, the brain networks that direct it, why multitasking fails, and how the brain decides what to ignore. February 7, 2026 · 3 min read

Learning, Memory & Thinking Intermediate Executive Function and the Prefrontal Cortex The brain's management system: inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility, how they're measured, how they develop, and what happens when the prefrontal cortex is damaged. December 31, 2025 · 2 min read

Learning, Memory & Thinking Intermediate Memory Consolidation and Sleep How fragile new memories become stable: synaptic and systems consolidation, the hippocampus replaying the day during sleep, and the surprising discovery that recalled memories become changeable again. October 31, 2025 · 3 min read

About this project

NeuroScience Decoded is an independent, plain-language encyclopedia of the brain and nervous system. It covers what neuroscience is, five thousand years of its history and the people who made it, how neurons and synapses work, brain chemistry and anatomy, development, the senses, movement, memory, emotion, sleep and consciousness, neurological and mental health conditions, the tools scientists use, the overlap with artificial intelligence, treatments, and the ethics and future of the field.

Every entry is written to be understood by a curious reader with no science background. Each one is tagged Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced, opens with an In plain English summary, offers everyday analogies and try-it-yourself examples, ends with key takeaways, and links to the concepts worth reading first.