Your brain may have brief windows when it is primed to transform a passing moment into a lasting memory.

Researchers at the University of Tübingen found that natural shifts in alertness can briefly change the hippocampus, making its memory circuits more receptive to new information. The findings suggest that memory formation depends not only on what happens to us but also on the brain’s condition at that exact moment.

The study, published in Nature Communications, was led by Professor Andrea Burgalossi of the Institute of Neurobiology and the Werner Reichardt Center for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN).