This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“Given the grim facts, a sense of tragedy looms as science has been able to do precious little to combat neural disorders. One reason for this failure has been our meager understanding of the cognitive processes that are crippled in the course of the diseases. This has not been for lack of effort. Thousands of scientists have spent careers and billions of dollars seeking and largely failing to unearth these secrets. Sadly, because science has not developed more thorough understandings of how the physical processes of learning and memory are supposed to work, there has been little that could be done to fix those processes when they break.” – Terry McDermott, Chapter One: The Talking Cure, Page 14
“Most of the time, when people attempt to define memory, they speak in metaphors, drawing analogies between memories and filing cabinets, or photographs, or videotape replays. They might talk about what memories mean and what the loss of them portends. They almost never talk about what memories actually are. Why? The simplest answer is they do not know.” – Terry McDermott, Chapter Two: Seeing, Page 17
“As counterintuitive as it seems, the idea that there would be an active forgetting mechanism right on the cusp of the mechanism that causes memory to occur makes sense. No one remembers or would want to remember everything. Walk down the block, go to the corner store, buy a cup of coffee, and go home. What of that will you want to remember? Likely very little. There has to be a way to get rid of stuff. Sharp waves – in essence, letting the mind wander – seemed a candidate to erase current experience from memory.” – Terry McDermott, Chapter Seven: Everything Falls Apart, Page 146
Is This An Overview?
The science of the brain is complex. A complexity that prevents an understanding
of the cognitive process. Without an
understanding of the brain, there is little to treat neural disorders, or to
improve memory and cognitive ability.
Due to the efforts made, discoveries about the brain have been made. Discoveries such as that the brain is wired
to constantly lose information. That
most of the brain uses the same basic circuitry, the same basic neurons.
This a book about the search to find the visual trace of
memory, the physical changes in the brain when memory is made, an engram. This is supposed to happen when memory is
encoded, the method by which the brain changes shape, a process called
long-term potentiation. The scientists
behind the science are competitive. Competing
for grant funds. Competition that causes
tensions to become dramatic, personal, which can at times override the process
of science.
Caveats?
This is an eclectic book, with a focus on memory. This book is part biography, part basic
science, part personalities involved in the science, part academic practice,
part laboratory practice, part how discoveries are made, part how neurological
products are made. Some parts are for a
general audience, but some parts contain technical information about neuroscience.
