https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_map
Link to originalmemory in the brain is associative. It is stored in reference frames based on grid cells.
This also explains why it is easier to remember things if you assign them to spatial locations, e.g. in a “thought palace” / “method of loci”.
The brain prefers to store things in reference frames.
The method of recalling things (“or thinking if you will” … not so sure about that yet. I think this is just the interpolative memory part - where is the “program synthesis” part?) is to mentally move through those reference frames.
One can physically move through reference frames, i.e. by moving through a room, touching an object, … or by thinking about them.
How Your Brain Organizes Information - Can We Build an Artificial Hippocampus - Artem Kirsanov