Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory

Cambridge Fundamentals of Neuroscience in Psychology

by Scott D. Slotnick (Editor)

The cognitive neuroscience of long-term memory is ingrained with the assumptions that a particular task measures a single cognitive process and that each cognitive process is mediated by a single brain region. However, these assumptions are simplistic and currently hindering progress toward understanding the true mechanisms of memory. This special issue of Cognitive Neuroscience presents five empirical papers and two theoretical discussion papers with peer commentaries on the spatial and/or temporal mechanisms of memory. These papers embrace more complex cognitive and neural processes, and thus will provide a framework for future studies to investigate the true mechanisms of memory.

Genres: Neuroscience, Science, Psychology, Nonfiction

126 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2012

About the author

Professor, Department of Psychology, Boston College
Editor, Cognitive Neuroscience
(Lab at Boston College)
(Google Scholar page)

Reviews

[Tom Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book that both shows the current state of the art in neuroscience and the limitations of that art.
The first curiosity here is the types of memory:

Memory
 Explicit Memory
 Long-term Memory
 Episodic Memory
 Context Memory
 "Remembering"
 Recollection
 Semantic Memory
 Item Memory
 Working Memory
 Implicit Memory
 Skills
 Repetition Priming

The book describes well the two major tools used to research the living brain: fMRI and ERPs. By using fMRI, it's possible to see which parts of the brain art lighting up when a person is performing a particular memory task. However, this exposes the central problem in current brain research and this excellent book manifests that exact issue. We now know where but not why. Beyond knowing which areas of the brain light up, we don't know enough to make that useful. Beyond the early parts, this book devolves into listing which areas of the brain light up for a particular memory task but beyond that, it's a mystery what's going on in that lit-up section of the brain. This book would have gotten 5 stars only if the story was better understood and not so ambiguous.

Beyond that, there were two key insights:
"Episodic Memory involves retrieval of what items comprised the event, where the event took place, and when the event occurred. Retrieval of such detailed what-where-when information requires mentally traveling back in time to the previously experienced event. Such mental time travel is a key component of episodic memories and is associated with the subject experience of 'remembering' rather than 'knowing'.
Regarding the memories of animals, the following insight was given: "Some of the most compelling evidence that animals can have episodic memory stems from the discovery of memory replay in the hippocampus. Memory replay refers to the reactivation of brain activity associated with a previous experience in the correct temporal order. ... A study of bottlenose dolphins also showed evidence of memory replay during periods of sleep or rest. The dolphins heard recorded humpback whale sounds... The whale sounds are very different from the whistles and burst-pulsed vocalizations typically made by dolphins. Sounds from the dolphins were recorded during subsequent days and nights. It was found that the dolphins made whale-like sound productions, mostly at night but also during quiet restfulness while swimming slowly or floating. Such sounds were never observed before the dolphins heard the whale sounds."

[Bogdan Toma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much emphasis on anatomy, imaging and electrophysiology... without any information about the molecular mechanisms, psychopharmacology, and so forth.