Volume 53, Number 15 · October 5, 2006
Thanks for the Memory
By Sue M. Halpern
In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind
by Eric R. Kandel
Norton, 510 pp., $29.95
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside
by Katrina Firlik
Random House, 271 pp., $24.95
The human brain has been described as having the consistency of tofu or soft butter, and as being like a three-pound Brie. It has been compared to a computer, though that's a misguided analogy since the brain does not operate through digital logic. Nor is its content—what we call knowledge—discrete. The brain is dynamic and plastic, changing in response to whatever comes its way. This is not a metaphor. Encounter something once and it is foreign to you. Encounter it many times and it is familiar. The thing itself hasn't changed; your brain has. Experience has laid down new neural pathways. They are biochemical and electrical. They are real. Within limits, they can be observed and measured.
Review, 4012 words
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