Why do we never forget how to ride a bike?
LUCY HANNIGAN, SUNDERLAND
Life experiences and facts are one type of memory. Riding a bike is another: it’s a skill, or a learned pattern of movement that neurologists refer to as ‘procedural memory’, more commonly known as ‘muscle memory’. There are, of course, lots of skills – like driving a car or tying your shoelaces – that are so embedded in our minds that we barely have to think about them. It’s not clear why procedural memories are harder to forget than others, but it might have something to do with where they’re stored in the brain; an area that seems relatively protected and resistant to rewiring. HB
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