template

…variously been called neural traces, templates, or engrams. Ideas and images are held to derive from the incorporation and activation of these engrams in complex circuits involving nerve cells. Such circuits in the cortex (outer layers) of the brain appear to subserve the neurophysiology of memory, thought, imagination,

…detailed song and establishes a template of it; the following spring, the sparrow starts singing and needs practice to match its output to the stored template.