A widespread question is about how places live on in our memories. For our minds to create a memory, the connection between our neurons needs to be adjusted. When they adjust, they create a cluster of cells known as engrams. Engrams are basically memory traces. The engram creates a specific code, taking note of the scenery you are surrounded by. Most often, they take note of what your body senses - things you touch, smell, hear, see, and taste. That code is now the memory that will ignite in the future. The simple smell in the air, or a specific sound that occurs can bring somebody back to a place that holds value in their mind. You could hear a song and be brought back to a time in your life when that song was important at some moment. Memories are often stored in the brain because of the senses that we as humans have. In “The Longhouse, Oneida Museum” by Roberta Hill, it is apparent that she remembers the Longhouse because of sensory details. …show more content…
In the story Hill wrote, “Those nights when the throat of the furnace wheezed and rattled its regular death.” From this quote, we can decipher that the author was brought back to a time in her life that she has previously experienced by the sound of wheezing that made her remember the furnace of the house she was removed from. Hill also stated, “My eyes burn from the cat urine under the basement stairs.” Proven by researchers, smell is actually the strongest sense we have when it comes to evoking memories. This explains how Roberta Hill could smell the cat urine under the stairs, even though it was not there, but being in the house brought back the memories of