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Short-Term Memory

المؤلف:  John E. Hall, PhD

المصدر:  Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology

الجزء والصفحة:  13th Edition , p746-747

2026-08-04

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Short-term memory is typified by one’s memory of 7 to 10 numerals in a telephone number (or 7 to 10 other discrete facts) for a few seconds to a few minutes at a time but lasting only as long as the person continues to think about the numbers or facts.

Many physiologists have suggested that this short-term memory is caused by continual neural activity resulting from nerve signals that travel around and around a temporary memory trace in a circuit of reverberating neurons. It has not yet been possible to prove this theory. Another possible explanation of short-term memory is presynaptic facilitation or inhibition, which occurs at syn apses that lie on terminal nerve fibrils immediately before these fibrils synapse with a subsequent neuron. The neurotransmitter chemicals secreted at such terminals frequently cause facilitation or inhibition lasting for seconds up to several minutes. Circuits of this type could lead to short-term memory.