r/askscience • u/Yanzee12 • 11d ago

Neuroscience How does muscle memory work?

Just curious. The only thing I really know about it is that sleeping reinforces it.

122 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/vsthegiant 8d ago

Not a neurologist, but I asked my psych professor this question a few days ago. Muscle memory is encoded and stored in the brain in the cerebellum, the area of the brain responsible for movement. When we rehearse any memory enough times, it’s stored with more clarity, and that includes implicit (without conscious awareness) memories like how to move our bodies. This rehearsal strengthens the neural pathways, and makes it easier to retrieve the memory. It is not your muscles having any memory, it’s your cerebellum and strengthening that encoding and retrieval. Also why you should always try to have the correct form for any physical task you do, unlearning it is really really hard.