The much more magical part to me is how firing these patterns of electrical activity gives rise to an experience of remembering... Also, how exactly do they kn

The much more magical part to me is how firing these patterns of electrical activity gives rise to an experience of remembering... Also, how exactly do they know the neuronal firing patterns happen before remembering? If you have to signal you remembered something (as in the article, a word pair), isn't there always a delay between the experience of remembering and signalling your recall? Isn't it more accurate to say the electrical signals are fired fractions of a second before communicating what you recalled? How to know if what you remember doesn't correspond 1-1 with the neuronal firing patterns taking place (or even before the electrical activity).