Research Catalog

Title

Memories are made of this : how memory works in humans and animals / Rusiko Bourtchouladze.

Author

Bourtchouladze, Rusiko.

Publication

New York : Columbia University Press, [2002], ©2002.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

viii, 199 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

• "Memory enables us to make experience meaningful and to form coherent identities for ourselves and intelligible perceptions of others. Indeed, our ability to imagine, anticipate, and create the future is directly commensurate with our ability to retrieve and recollect past experiences.".
• "But for all its vital importance in human cognition, for all that it seems so ordinary and obvious, memory remains in many ways as complex and mysterious today as it seemed to ancient philosophers. We need only to think about the "tip-of-the-tongue" experience to wonder how memories are formed, where they reside in our brains, and why some are retained, while others are forgotten. What is the difference between long-and short-term memory? Can memory be strengthened?
• Memories Are Made of This is an account of current memory science that offers answers to these and a host of other questions, comprehensively distilling much diverse and rigorous science. It delves into the biology of memory functions, the mechanics and genetics of memory and the importance of emotions, particularly those resulting from trauma, in the memory process. A special focus of the book are investigations into the cognitive abilities of other species. Are we the only animals who remember and forget? If not, are there commonalities in the memories of different species?
• The book also surveys our understanding of the effects of injury and disease on memory and concludes with an assessment of emerging pharmacological efforts to preserve and protect our memories and, in turn, ourselves."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

Maps of the mind

Uniform Title

Maps of the mind.

Subjects

• Animal memory > Popular works
• Memory > Popular works

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [175]-191) and index.

Contents

1. Wax, Theatres and Nonsense Syllables: A Brief Overview of the History of Memory -- 2. How Many Memory Systems Are There? -- 3. The Wiring of a Sea Horse: What is the Hippocampus For? -- 4. Almond's Fears and Emotions: The Amygdala and Remembering -- 5. The Flip Side of the Coin -- 6. The Biology of Memory -- 7. What Have Genes Got to Do With It?

ISBN

0231120206 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

2001059880

OCLC

• ocm48706534
• SCSB-4280980

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries