Long term memories are distinctly different. Rather than existing as patterns of potentials within a recurrent neural network like short term memories, long te

Long term memories are distinctly different. Rather than existing as patterns of potentials within a recurrent neural network like short term memories, long term memories are stored in the physical arrangement of the neurons themselves. Long-term learning is an inherent property of any neural network, but short-term storage of patterns, and more importantly interpretation of those patterns, has quite a bit of overhead.