CreigUSA

Asking or being asked a question creates a brain state (in my parlance a holographic interference pattern). Anything which resonates (has a holographic pattern similarity) to that pattern will tend to emerge. Energy conservation makes it easier for similar patterns to coexist in the brain. If an exact memory match cannot be established, the brain rhythms (interference pattern) will seek to arrive at a pattern which matches as closely as possible. From the perspective of the individual asking the question, that is either the answer (or best guess-- the holographic interference pattern which best fits the ongoing rhythm pattern).

The Eureka Moment is rather like trying to remember something that "you know that you know", but you can't find it in your memory. Much of brain activity goes on outside of our conscious attention. When we direct and "push" our thinking is the direction that we believe the answer lies we make prevent the appropriate brain state from emerging. If we just put in the information that we know and then let the brain do its own natural interactive pattern matching, it will tend to gravitate to the point where "awareness" is. In terms of a holographic memory approach (which my research favors), The various interference patterns created by incoming sensory information, our present state of consciousness, and the additional interference patterns which get triggered when words, ideas, visualizations, etc. (which are contained in those somewhat random patterns) will sync and converge. The electromagnetic energy patterns (or interference patterns) will seek to achieve energy conservation, by joining and syncing with other similar patterns rather than fighting them (which we do when we think we know where we are going and are in fact going in the wrong mental direction). This just adds to the general noise in the brain. "Letting go" basically allows the brain to operate by itself and it can find what it needs.

Memory is probably not stored in a place. There is a strong likelihood, that memory is "stored" holographically. The "reverberating loops" of neurons first discussed by D.O. Hebb do exist in the brain, but there are many different loops reverberating at once in ever shifting patterns. These loops create electromagnetic interference patterns in the cortex similar to the ones used to create holographic images (three dimensional photographs). While there is no "hard" proof that these internally generated interference patterns are actually memories, there are strong similarities. Human memory degrades (gets fuzzy) in the same way holographic images do when part of them is lost. In addition, the ongoing interference pattern changes as new sensory information comes into the brain and these changes can restimulate neurons so as to reactivate previous reverberating loops. That provides the capacity for memory storage. I discuss this theory in some detail on my website appliedcognitivescience.org if you are interested.