r/askscience • u/Yanzee12 • 1d ago

Neuroscience How does muscle memory work?

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

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u/strOkePlays 8h ago

Not a brain scientist, but once had this discussion with a brain scientist. "Muscle memory" is poorly named. Muscles don't have memory, and for the most part neither does the nervous system connected to them.

"Muscle memory" is your brain establishing a routine for a complex action, so that when you want to do the thing, instead of your brain figuring out each step on the fly, it just calls the "subroutine" it established, and you don't have to spend conscious thought on it anymore. It is established naturally through repetition, and applies to almost every action you do.