We can see when your brain forms a memory by watching you move

By Clare Wilson

How do we make a memory? An idea gaining ground is that forming memories and recalling them involves brainwaves cycling several times a second in our hippocampi, two small curved structures on either side of the brain.

Evidence to support the idea is accumulating, including the first glimpses of subtle patterns in people’s actions that reflect these underlying rhythms. “You can make these brainwaves visible in behaviour,” says Maria Wimber at the University of Birmingham, UK.

The …