Brain Science Podcast #12: Memory
This episode of the Brain Science Podcast is a discussion of memory based on the book, Memory: From Mind to Molecules (2000), by Larry R. Squire, and Eric R. Kandel.
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Show Notes
I highly recommend you get this book for yourself if you want to read the details of the experiments. The book contains excellent illustrations.
Some of the experimental animals mentioned in this episode include Aplysia (giant sea snails), Drosophila (fruit flies), and mice.
Mechanisms of memory formation and storage seem to be shared from the simplest non-vertebrates up through humans.
Types of Memory: declarative and non-declarative. Non-declarative memory is generally NOT subject to conscious awareness or control.
There are many different types of non-declarative memory including:
- motor skills
- habituation and sensitization
- classical and operant conditioning
- priming
- perceptual skills
Declarative memory, which seems to be unique to animals that have a hippocampus and cerebral cortex, includes short-term (immediate and working memory) and long-term memory. Much research has been devoted to discovering how and where long-term memory occurs. The answer may surprise you.
This episode includes a discussion of some of the unanswered questions in memory research.
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