Reference Information
Title: Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
Author: Lauren Slater
Editor: W.W Norton & Company, 2008
Chapter 9: Memory Inc.
Summary
This chapter discussed H.M., the man who's hippocampus was removed to stop seizures, effectively removing his ability to have any kind of short term memory, but still retaining general long term memories. This inspired much research regarding the location of memories in the brain, including Eric Kandel's Sea Slug experiments, whereby he tested individual neurons in sea slugs to determine their purpose and produce fast learning. From this, he learned that learning can be increased/sped up by the use of certain chemicals.
Discussion
I like that the author followed the previous chapter of false memories with this one, discussing the physical nature of memories and where they reside in a person's brain. I find it particularly interesting that through experiments with sea slugs, Kandel was able to determine that a particular chemical promoted increased memory functions, and is now working on marketing it as a drug. This could have incredible impact for those that suffer from memory loss, although the author brought up a good point when she mentioned that it would bring up many ethical questions.
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