|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
The Puzzle of Memory
| Article
# : |
10252 |
|
|
Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
|
| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1986 |
4,708 Words |
| Author
: |
Anne Hinman Diffily
Anne Diffily is managing editor of the Brown Alumni Monthly. |
When philosophers speculate about the qualities that define us as human beings, inevitably the conversation turns to our minds. The ancients once held the heart to be the locus of individual humanity, but today one of the undisputed anatomical arbiters of our status as Homo sapiens is the brain.
An amazing organ it is. Dull gray in color, and the texture of Brie cheese, the brain reposes in dense coils inside our skull. It doesn't look like much, but the human brain is capable of astonishing feats. Besides regulating the life-sustaining mechanisms of our bodies, such as our heartbeat and breathing, the brain performs higher functions such as learning and remembering. And our memories, the philosophers agree, are a key to defining our collective humanity and our individual personalities.
No one is sure if there is any limit to the mind's capacity for memory. The sheer volume of experiences, words, concepts, facts, and faces stored in a human brain puts a computer to shame. On a purely practical level, we admire the brain's facility for retrieving stored information. Our zip code, a friend's telephone number, what our mother looked like twenty years ago, the melody of a favorite song, what we were doing when President Kennedy was assassinated - the information is proffered by our brains on demand, with alacrity and astonishing accuracy.
How we assimilate and retain a lifetime of information involves processes that not even the world's most eminent scientists have yet been able to explain. This is not, however, for lack of trying. Researchers by the hundreds are involved in brain research. They are neurobiologists, psychologists, computer scientists, biochemists, mathematicians, linguists, cognitive scientists, and various hybrids thereof. Out of their laboratories has come an enormous body of knowledge about learning and memory. Yet, synthesizing these diverse findings into a unified concept on which everyone can agree has long seemed impossible. How could a scientist observing the changes in a snail's brain cells, for example, have anything helpful to contribute to - or anything to learn from - a psychologist studying the organization of human memory? They seemed to be speaking different languages.
Now there is hope for a dialogue among brain researchers and theorists that not only will be enriching in itself, but also may escalate the process of finding a workable definition of memory, and an explanation of how it works.
"What
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
