There are a few proposals for how memory might work, but it's still early.

https://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/neuro/The%20mechanical%20ba...

Man I wish I became a neuroscientist or something. Seems like there’s so much work to do in that field if we ever want to understand the human brain, which I have my doubts. I’d probably do it if it didn’t involve basically a vow of poverty.

My opinion is that its the evolutionary process of chemical organisation in an environment. We see gene differences but we also see many parallels in other species. Unlock every effect a chemical has and you can unlock consciousness.