Reviews for In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind

The average rating for In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-02-20 00:00:00 jeff sanford I'm taking a course at Oxford this summer on "The Brain and the Senses." So this is a little extra homework. The idea of memory, where thoughts come from, etc., is fascinating to me. And, many years ago, before I was there, Kandel had his laboratory at the Public Health Research Institute, of which I was later CEO. I'll post more when I get into it. I HAVE NOW COMPLETED BOTH THE COURSE AND KANDEL'S BOOK. BOTH WERE TERRIFIC! The course, offered by Oxford tutor Gillie McNeill, combined descriptions of sensory processes with an explanation of the underlying molecular activity that integrates the incoming perceptions and what's already in memory to create a coherent narrative. We started by eating a cracker and considering what was involved in our individual perceptions of that event ... taste, smell, sight, feel, sound, and memory of crackers and herbs previously ingested. Quite a bit for the first few minutes of the course. Kandel’s book offers enchanting glimpses of his life story, the history of brain psychology and science, and a description of the experiments (of Kandel and others) which are moving our understanding of the brain forward at an incredible pace while also revealing just how little we still know. Kandel’s decision, early in his career, to begin his life’s work with the study of a single cell, set the stage for the way he approached his work. He decided to study the giant marine snail Aplysia as his first means to understand how information was brought into a cell and transferred out to another cell. Learn how that happens, multiply by tens of billions, and you have a working human brain. These quotes may communicate the excitement of Kandel’s journey (which by the way led to a Nobel prize)... “the realization that the workings of the brain - the ability not only to perceive but to think, learn, and store information - may occur through chemical as well as electrical signals expanded the appeal of brain science from anatomists and electro-physiologists to biochemists.” “I was testing the idea that the cellular mechanisms underlying learning and memory are likely to have been conserved through evolution and therefore to be found in simple animals.” “We pointed out the importance of discovering what actually goes on at the level of the synapse (the place where signals are passed from one cell to another) when behavior is modified by learning.” This last quote is almost a synopsis of what the course at the Oxford Experience was about. It turns out that there is considerable growth and change in the brain connections and that this goes on all the time. Your brain has changed since you started reading this review.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-11-24 00:00:00 Michael Charles Turner “In Search of Memory” spans the gamut from this Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine, Eric R. Kandel. From epithets of Anti-Semitism to meeting his wife and the beautiful shining brain stuff of legend is found within. “Without memory, we would be nothing” and we discover words---like swords “böser jude” delineating the struggles of Jews in Austria and leaving parents behind at 9 years old. The cerebral cortex is concerned with perception, action, language, and planning. Three structures lie within…amygdala coordinates autonomic and endocrine responses in the context of emotional states. —Eric R. Kandel How is a neuron like a signal? Inside this book we explore this and Freud (as usual) has a part in deciphering. In the brain---hard cheese like consistency—each cell is truly unique. Faces and how they are processed by the brain and the reactivity on the parts of facial recognition is an interesting study. We find how our responses gauge our reality at the time and what our brain retains. Information in a neural circuit travels, in what way? Noting well that this is a book review and not a report---and we take a voyage to Kristallnacht (1938) with Dr. Kandel and the transition of Vienna from being the center of culture to a place of oppression and humiliation. Personally, I can attest and confer being in Vienna (one of the most stunning cities in the world) it’s hard to imagine the horror that occurred. Must read! Savor, buy and share with loved ones.