Memory is an integrative neurobiological process of organising and keeping one's past experience, enabling it to be reproduced, reused in mental activity or returned to the sphere of consciousness and behaviour. Memory connects a person's past with their present and future; it is the most important cognitive function, which determines the possibilities of one's ontogenetic development, learning and is a prerequisite for the formation of intellect.
According to D. Wechsler (1958), intellect is defined as the generalized global ability of an individual to appropriate behaviour, rational thinking and effective interaction with the external world.
Currently, it is accepted to distinguish short-term (operational) memory and a long-term one. In accordance with the concept of J. Papez (1937), the neuromorphological basis for the formation of memory stocks is associative fibres of hypothalamic structures, fornix, mammillary bodies, anterior hypothalamus nucleus, cingulate, presubicular area ("Papez's Circle"), which is now confirmed by studying computer tomograms in cases of different memory disorders developing at the initial stages of organic destructive diseases of various genesis. Neurons of cortical structures - basal divisions of the temporal lobe cortex, parietal divisions of the cortex of the angular convolution, frontal divisions of the cortex, Broca's centre, Wernicke's area - provide and secure functioning of all types of memory and function of speech. Loss of more than 20 percent of neurons of cortical structures (e.g., in the case of atrophy) leads to a permanent decrease in memory and intellect.
In psychiatry, memory is understood as an ability to keep impressions (memorisation) and recall the resulting ideas and concepts from the stock of available engrams. The ability to retain more or less exact information that enriches the content of consciousness is called retention. In mentally healthy people, variations in the degree of development of their ability to memorise and recall can be quite different. Some people have a very good memory in relation to some categories, phenomena, images; others have different memory orientation. Distinction is made between associative memory (the elements memorised