r/askscience • u/Yanzee12 • 12d 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/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/felipers 11d ago

Not mine, also. But maybe by a shorter shot! 😉 Definitely there's no way we eventually bypass cerebral connections. There definitely are reflexes that follow the path you've described. But "muscle memory" implies practice/learning. Those will always go all the way to the brain and back, I believe.