A common layman's conception of memory is the simple storage and retrieval of learned information that often evokes comparison to a filing system. Our everyday experience of memory, however, is in fact a complicated multifactorial process that consists of both conscious and unconscious components, and depends on the integration of a variety of information from distinct functional systems, each processing different types of information by different areas of the brain (substrates), while working in a concerted fashion.1"4 In other words, memory is not a singular process. It represents an integrated network of neurologic tasks and connections. In this light, memory may evoke comparison with an orchestra composed of many different instruments, each making different sounds and responsible for different parts of the score, but when played together in the proper coordinated fashion, making an integrated musical experience that is greater than the simple sum of the individual instruments.
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