Reference Information
Title: Opening Skinner's Box
Author: Lauren Slater
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company (2008)
Chapter 9: Memory Inc. (19 pages)
Summary
Slater focuses this chapter on Eric Kandel's research of memory. She begins by describing the story of a man with severe epilepsy. Dr. Scoville was quite confident he knew he could fix that problem and removed the man's hippocampus. After the surgery, the man could no longer form memories.
In hearing this, Kandel decided he wanted to learn more about neurons. He studied sea slugs. Kandel learned that neurons grew stronger when an electrochemical signal reinforced the relationship. He discovered CREB, a molecule in the brain that enables genes to produce proteins that aid in memory creation. He has a company that makes pills to increase CREB activity.
Discussion
As always, this was an interesting chapter. I know that brain activity is responsible for producing things like HGH, which aids healing, and this is sort of an extension of that. I don't like the idea of using pills to do this, however. I think that there are much more complex reactions that occur and a chemical imbalance can lead to irreversible problems. It's like introducing too much testosterone into one's system; it causes other things to fail or not produce necessary chemicals.
Slater focuses this chapter on Eric Kandel's research of memory. She begins by describing the story of a man with severe epilepsy. Dr. Scoville was quite confident he knew he could fix that problem and removed the man's hippocampus. After the surgery, the man could no longer form memories.
In hearing this, Kandel decided he wanted to learn more about neurons. He studied sea slugs. Kandel learned that neurons grew stronger when an electrochemical signal reinforced the relationship. He discovered CREB, a molecule in the brain that enables genes to produce proteins that aid in memory creation. He has a company that makes pills to increase CREB activity.
Discussion
As always, this was an interesting chapter. I know that brain activity is responsible for producing things like HGH, which aids healing, and this is sort of an extension of that. I don't like the idea of using pills to do this, however. I think that there are much more complex reactions that occur and a chemical imbalance can lead to irreversible problems. It's like introducing too much testosterone into one's system; it causes other things to fail or not produce necessary chemicals.
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