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Intermediate-term memory
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<p>Intermediate-term memory (ITM) is a stage of <a href="/facts/Memory/zucwQIEX">memory</a> distinct from <a href="/facts/Sensory_memory/a18t09Hd">sensory memory</a>, <a href="/facts/Working_memory/kzeDD3KQ">working memory</a>/<a href="/facts/Short-term_memory/xaFod2bp">short-term memory</a>, and <a href="/facts/Long-term_memory/NvxgXP2y">long-term memory</a>. While sensory memory persists for several milliseconds, working memory persists for up to thirty seconds, and long-term memory persists from thirty minutes to the end of an individual's life, intermediate-term memory persists for about two to three hours. This overlap in the durations of these memory processes indicates that they occur simultaneously, rather than sequentially. Indeed, intermediate-term facilitation can be produced in the absence of long-term facilitation. However, the boundaries between these forms of memory are not clear-cut, and they can vary depending on the task. Intermediate-term memory is thought to be supported by the <a href="/facts/Parahippocampal_cortex/3TNGTLdG">parahippocampal cortex</a>. </p><p>In 1993, Rosenzweig and colleagues demonstrated that, in chicks <a href="/facts/Classical_conditioning/ddtohoz3">conditioned</a> with an aversive stimulus, percent avoidance of the stimulus (and, by implication, memory of the aversive nature of the stimulus) reached <a href="/facts/Minima_and_maxima/ADlgnyzV">relative minima</a> at one minute, fifteen minutes, and sixty minutes. These dips were theorized to correspond to the time points in which the chicks switched from working memory to intermediate-term memory, from intermediate-term memory to the early phase of long-term memory, and from the early phase of long-term memory to the late phase of long-term memory, respectively—thus demonstrating the presence of a form of memory that exists between working memory and long-term memory, which they referred to as "intermediate-term memory". </p><p>Though the idea of intermediate-term memory has existed since the 1990s, Sutton <i>et al.</i> introduced a novel theory for the neural correlates underlying intermediate-term memory in <i><a href="/facts/Aplysia/NzU0uLKI">Aplysia</a></i> in 2001, where they described it as the primary behavioral manifestation of intermediate-term <a href="/facts/Neural_facilitation/xpL0ee6q">facilitation</a>. </p>