UCL scientists show how the brain records memories

It is not only in the MA in Conparative Literature that we are attempting to map the ways memory works. Although neuroscientists may not be able to say something particular about how collective and cultural memories function in local and globalised cultures, UCL scientists have published research that claims to make it possible to read personal memories in the brain.

"Professor Eleanor Maguire (UCL Institute of Neurology) and Demis Hassabis have published research which confirms that it may be possible to ‘read’ a person's memories just by looking at brain activity. In a study published today in the journal Current Biology, the researchers show that our memories are recorded in regular patterns, a finding which challenges current scientific thinking."


Read the UCL news feed here

Pointers

Friends,

In the spirit of getting to know each other's individual interests in the subject at hand, I would like to draw your attention to the work of one of my favourites, the American philosopher Daniel Dennett (pictured). Here is the transcript of a significant and accessible talk Dennett presented in 1992, on the mechanics of memory. I can't gauge how relevant this rather technical and basic epistemological discussion will be to our endeavour but I think it could be comforting as a solid basis from which to digress into the more abstract trains of thought that literary-minded people tend to end up following. Dan Dennett is an exceptionally gifted speaker, so I'd also like to point you towards a lecture on consciousness he delivered more recently as part of TED, here. TED, for those who haven't come across it, is perhaps the most bookmarkable address on the net. The most inspiring lectures by some of the world's most accomplished speakers are archived there. It's a profound database of audacious ideas worth visiting regularly.

See you next week,

David