A recent book, The Making of Memory, by Steven Rose, seems to me
to be an unusual and useful introduction into the world of neuroscience
research.
_The_Making_Of_Memory_ (_From_Molecules_to_Mind_),
takes the non-specialist reader on an interesting tour through the mind and
30 years work of this theoretical and experimental neuroscientist,
who offers his thoughts on mind, body, memory, and science in general,
and an inside look at what really happens in a memory research lab.
It is very illuminating in spots as to the kinds of knowledge we have
about the cellular and biochemical basis of memory and cognition,
how we know what we know; and gives provides some lucid background
on the most famous and influential experiments and discoveries in
neuroscience related to memory, and those on which the various claims
about nootropics and such are based.
Some of the readers here may have caught Rose's review of
"nootropics" in _New_Scientist_, a few months ago, and seen that he
is a supporter of pharmacological memory research, but somewhat critical
of the notion of 'recreational' memory enhancement by chemical means.
His new book spends very little time on that subject specifically,
but the reasoning that leads him to his position is gently made very
clear.
Both an inside glimpse into real working
neuroscience, and an atypical introduction into memory research.
kind regards,
todd
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| Todd I. Stark stark at dwovax.enet.dec.com |
| Digital Equipment Corporation (215) 542-3573 |
| Philadelphia, Pa. USA |
| "(A word is) the skin of a living thought" Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. |
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