{"id":1987,"date":"2025-01-20T13:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T21:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2025-01-20T13:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T21:06:09","slug":"notes-on-kandel-in-search-of-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/2025\/01\/20\/notes-on-kandel-in-search-of-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes on Kandel, In Search of Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"
In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind<\/div>\n
Kandel, Eric R.<\/div>\n
Citation (Chicago Style): Kandel, Eric R.. In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind<\/i>. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. Kindle edition.<\/div>\n
\n
ONE<\/div>\n
Bookmark – 2. A Childhood in Vienna > Page 12 \u00b7 Location 348<\/div>\n
Bookmark – 2. A Childhood in Vienna > Page 12 \u00b7 Location 357<\/div>\n
Bookmark – 2. A Childhood in Vienna > Page 18 \u00b7 Location 416<\/div>\n
Bookmark – 3. An American Education > Page 38 \u00b7 Location 713<\/div>\n
Bookmark – 3. An American Education > Page 40 \u00b7 Location 732<\/div>\n
TWO<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 4. One Cell at a Time > Page 67 \u00b7 Location 1082<\/div>\n
Parkinson\u2019s disease attacks a certain class of interneurons;<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 4. One Cell at a Time > Page 71 \u00b7 Location 1152<\/div>\n
If and only if the sum of excitation exceeds that of inhibition by a critical minimum will the motor neuron signal the target muscle to contract.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 5. The Nerve Cell Speaks > Page 88 \u00b7 Location 1374<\/div>\n
In this way a signal for a visual experience, a movement, a thought, or a memory is sent from one end of the neuron to the other. For their work, now<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 9. Searching for an Ideal System to Study Memory > Page 142 \u00b7 Location 2125<\/div>\n
the cellular mechanisms of learning and memory reside not in the special properties of the neuron itself, but in the connections it receives and makes with other cells in the neuronal circuit to which it belongs.<\/div>\n
THREE<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 15. The Biological Basis of Individuality > Page 215 \u00b7 Location 3163<\/div>\n
Short-term memory produces a change in the function of the synapse, strengthening or weakening preexisting connections; long-term memory requires anatomical changes. Repeated sensitization training (practice) causes neurons to grow new terminals, giving rise to long-term memory, whereas habituation causes neurons to retract existing terminals. Thus, by producing profound structural changes, learning can make inactive synapses active or active synapses inactive.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 16. Molecules and Short-Term Memory > Page 230 \u00b7 Location 3377<\/div>\n
He then went on to show that when the concentration of dopamine is decreased in a rabbit, the animal develops symptoms that resemble Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/div>\n
Bookmark – 16. Molecules and Short-Term Memory > Page 230 \u00b7 Location 3388<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 17. Long-Term Memory > Page 240 \u00b7 Location 3522<\/div>\n
We had succeeded in tracing a simple learned response in Aplysia to the neurons and synapses that mediate it and had found that learning gives rise to short-term memory by producing transient changes in the strength of existing synaptic connections between sensory and motor neurons. Those short-term changes are mediated by proteins and other molecules already present at the synapse. We had discovered that cyclic AMP and protein kinase A enhance the release of glutamate from the terminals of the sensory neurons, and that this enhanced release is a key element in short-term memory formation. In brief, we had in Aplysia an experimental system whose molecular components we could manipulate experimentally in a logical way.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 18. Memory Genes > Page 257 \u00b7 Location 3762<\/div>\n
we now know to be a fact: that even in a complex organism like a human being, almost every gene of the genome is present in every cell of the body. Every cell has in its nucleus all of the chromosomes of the organism and therefore all of the genes necessary to form the entire organism.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 18. Memory Genes > Page 257 \u00b7 Location 3764<\/div>\n
Jacob and Monod proposed what ultimately proved to be the case\u2014namely, that a liver cell is a liver cell, and a brain cell is a brain cell because in each cell type only some of those genes are turned on, or expressed; all of the other genes are shut off, or repressed. Thus, each cell type contains a unique mix of<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 18. Memory Genes > Page 257 \u00b7 Location 3776<\/div>\n
They postulated that every effector gene has in its DNA not only a coding region that encodes a particular protein but also a control region, a specific site now known as the promoter. Regulatory proteins bind to the promoter of effector sites and thereby determine whether the effector genes are going to be switched on or<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 18. Memory Genes > Page 259 \u00b7 Location 3797<\/div>\n
I now asked: What is the nature of the regulatory genes that respond to a specific form of learning, that is, to cues from the environment? And how do these regulatory genes switch a short-term synaptic change that is critical to a specific short-term memory into a long-term synaptic change that is critical to a specific long-term memory?<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 19. A Dialogue Between Genes and Synapses > Page 262 \u00b7 Location 3834<\/div>\n
In this paper, we proposed that if gene expression was required to convert short-term memory at a synapse into long-term memory, then the synapse stimulated by learning somehow had to send a signal to the nucleus telling it to turn on certain regulatory genes. In short-term memory, synapses use cyclic AMP and protein kinase A inside the cell to call for the release of more neurotransmitter.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 19. A Dialogue Between Genes and Synapses > Page 266 \u00b7 Location 3889<\/div>\n
Conversely, a characteristic of age-related memory loss (benign senescent forgetfulness)<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 19. A Dialogue Between Genes and Synapses > Page 268 \u00b7 Location 3929<\/div>\n
insight into the computational power of the brain. It illustrates that even though a neuron may make one thousand or more synaptic connections with different target cells, the individual synapses can be modified independently, in long-term as well as short-term memory. The synapses\u2019 independence of long-term action gives the neuron extraordinary computational flexibility.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 19. A Dialogue Between Genes and Synapses > Page 273 \u00b7 Location 3980<\/div>\n
The second way in which prions differ from other proteins is that the dominant form is self-perpetuating;<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 19. A Dialogue Between Genes and Synapses > Page 275 \u00b7 Location 4004<\/div>\n
CPEB is the first self-propagating form of a prion known to serve a physiological function\u2014in this case, perpetuation of synaptic facilitation and memory storage.<\/div>\n
FOUR<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 20. A Return to Complex Memory > Page 281 \u00b7 Location 4059<\/div>\n
Recall of memory is a creative process. What the brain stores is thought to be only a core memory. Upon recall, this core memory is then elaborated upon and reconstructed, with subtractions, additions, elaborations, and distortions. What biological processes enable me to review my own history with such emotional vividness?<\/div>\n
Bookmark – 20. A Return to Complex Memory > Page 281 \u00b7 Location 4059<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 20. A Return to Complex Memory > Page 283 \u00b7 Location 4092<\/div>\n
heterosynaptically,<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 20. A Return to Complex Memory > Page 283 \u00b7 Location 4093<\/div>\n
homosynaptic<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 20. A Return to Complex Memory > Page 283 \u00b7 Location 4094<\/div>\n
neuromodulators are usually recruited to switch short-term homosynaptic plasticity into long-term heterosynaptic plasticity.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 20. A Return to Complex Memory > Page 284 \u00b7 Location 4106<\/div>\n
Gary Lynch<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 21. Synapses Also Hold Our Fondest Memories > Page 289 \u00b7 Location 4169<\/div>\n
Almost every gene in the human genome exists in several different versions, called alleles, which are present in different members of the human population. Genetic studies of human neurological and psychiatric disorders had made it possible to identify alleles that account for behavioral differences in normal people as well as alleles that underlie many neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, early onset Alzheimer\u2019s disease, Parkinson\u2019s disease,<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 22. The Brains Picture of the External World > Page 302 \u00b7 Location 4368<\/div>\n
Sensation is an abstraction, not a replication, of the real world.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 22. The Brains Picture of the External World > Page 304 \u00b7 Location 4401<\/div>\n
there is no single cortical area to which all other cortical areas report exclusively, either in the visual or in any other system. In sum, the cortex must be using a different strategy for generating the integrated visual image.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 23. Attention Must Be Paid! > Page 312 \u00b7 Location 4527<\/div>\n
already knew that attention was not simply a mysterious force in the brain but a modulatory process.<\/div>\n
FIVE<\/div>\n
Bookmark – 24. A Little Red Pill > Page 319 \u00b7 Location 4586<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 24. A Little Red Pill > Page 327 \u00b7 Location 4714<\/div>\n
Half of the 60 percent have a slight memory impairment, sometimes called benign senescent forgetfulness, that progresses only slowly, if at all, with time and age. The remaining half, however (or 30 percent of the population over age seventy), develop Alzheimer\u2019s disease, a progressive degeneration of the brain.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 24. A Little Red Pill > Page 329 \u00b7 Location 4743<\/div>\n
mouse has a defect in spatial memory, it implies that something is wrong with the hippocampus.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 24. A Little Red Pill > Page 330 \u00b7 Location 4758<\/div>\n
These results support the notion that the decline in hippocampus-dependent learning in older animals is due, at least in part, to an age-related deficit in the late phase of long-term potentiation. Perhaps more important, they suggest that benign senescent forgetfulness may be reversible.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 25. Mice, Men, and Mental Illness > Page 337 \u00b7 Location 4854<\/div>\n
Parkinson\u2019s disease is a disorder of the substantia nigra,<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 25. Mice, Men, and Mental Illness > Page 339 \u00b7 Location 4886<\/div>\n
Thus, not only do animals experience fear, but we can tell when they are anxious. We can, so to speak, read their thoughts. This insight was first set out by Charles Darwin in his classic 1872 study The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 25. Mice, Men, and Mental Illness > Page 341 \u00b7 Location 4915<\/div>\n
wrote: \u201cWe feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike or tremble because we are sorry, angry or fearful, as the case may be.\u201d<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 25. Mice, Men, and Mental Illness > Page 343 \u00b7 Location 4951<\/div>\n
after a single exposure to a threat, the amygdala can retain the memory of that threat throughout an organism\u2019s entire life. How does this come about?<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 25. Mice, Men, and Mental Illness > Page 344 \u00b7 Location 4971<\/div>\n
pyramidal cells<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 26. A New Way to Treat Mental Illness > Page 356 \u00b7 Location 5110<\/div>\n
whom I would later share the Nobel Prize, made three remarkable discoveries that provided critical insights into both Parkinson\u2019s disease and schizophrenia. First, he discovered dopamine and showed it to be a neurotransmitter in the brain. Next, he found that when he lowered the concentration of dopamine in the brain of experimental animals by a critical amount, he produced a model of Parkinson\u2019s disease. From this finding he argued that parkinsonism may result from a lowered concentration of dopamine in regions of the brain that are involved in motor control. He and others tested this idea and found that they could reverse the symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s disease by giving patients additional dopamine.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 26. A New Way to Treat Mental Illness > Page 357 \u00b7 Location 5131<\/div>\n
abnormally large number of D2 receptors in the striatum, an area of the brain that, as we have seen, is usually involved in feeling good. Having an unusually large number of D2 receptors available to bind dopamine results in increased dopamine transmission. Simpson, Kellendonk,<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 27. Biology and the Renaissance of Psychoanalytic Thought > Page 370 \u00b7 Location 5334<\/div>\n
In fact, if psychotherapeutic changes are maintained over time, it is reasonable to conclude that different forms of psychotherapy lead to different structural changes in the brain, just as other forms of learning do.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 27. Biology and the Renaissance of Psychoanalytic Thought > Page 371 \u00b7 Location 5338<\/div>\n
the basal ganglia, the caudate nucleus, is the primary recipient of information coming from the cerebral cortex and other regions of the brain.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 27. Biology and the Renaissance of Psychoanalytic Thought > Page 372 \u00b7 Location 5361<\/div>\n
\u201cBut, ineffably,\u201d she writes, \u201cpsychotherapy heals. It makes some sense of the confusion, reins in the terrifying thoughts and feelings, returns some control and hope and possibility of learning from it all. Pills cannot, do not, ease one back into reality.\u201d<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 27. Biology and the Renaissance of Psychoanalytic Thought > Page 375 \u00b7 Location 5404<\/div>\n
As a result, most students of the brain believe, as Freud did, that we are not conscious of most cognitive processes, only of the end result of those processes. A similar principle seems to apply to our conscious sense of free will.<\/div>\n
Bookmark – 28. Consciousness > Page 376 \u00b7 Location 5411<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 28. Consciousness > Page 381 \u00b7 Location 5499<\/div>\n
Nagel argues that our complete lack of insight into the elements of subjective experience should not prevent us from discovering the neural correlates of consciousness and the rules that relate conscious phenomena to cellular processes in the brain.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 28. Consciousness > Page 386 \u00b7 Location 5568<\/div>\n
than 100,000 human expressions, was able to show, as did Charles Darwin before him, that irrespective of sex or culture, conscious perceptions of seven facial expressions\u2014happiness, fear, disgust, contempt, anger, surprise, and sadness\u2014have virtually the same meaning to everyone<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 28. Consciousness > Page 390 \u00b7 Location 5628<\/div>\n
\u201cour conscious mind may not have free will, but it does have free won\u2019t.\u201d<\/div>\n
SIX<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 29. Rediscovering Vienna via Stockholm > Page 405 \u00b7 Location 5820<\/div>\n
For a decade before Austria joined with Germany, a significant fraction of the Austrian population belonged to the Nazi party. Following annexation, Austrians made up about 8 percent of the population of the greater German Reich, yet they accounted for more than 30 percent of the officials working to eliminate the Jews. Austrians commanded four Polish death camps and held other leadership positions in the Reich: in addition to Hitler, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who was head of the Gestapo, and Adolf Eichmann, who was in charge of the extermination program, were Austrians. It is estimated that of the 6 million Jews who perished during the Holocaust, approximately half were killed by Austrian functionaries led by Eichmann.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 30. Learning from Memory: Prospects > Page 423 \u00b7 Location 6084<\/div>\n
What neural circuits are important for various types of memory? How are internal representations<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 30. Learning from Memory: Prospects > Page 423 \u00b7 Location 6084<\/div>\n
of a face, a scene, a melody, or an experience encoded in the brain?<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 30. Learning from Memory: Prospects > Page 424 \u00b7 Location 6099<\/div>\n
First, I would like to understand how the unconscious processing of sensory information occurs and how conscious attention guides the mechanisms in the brain that stabilize memory.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 30. Learning from Memory: Prospects > Page 424 \u00b7 Location 6110<\/div>\n
From this perspective, to which most neural scientists now subscribe, most of our mental life is unconscious; it becomes conscious only as words and images. Brain imaging could be used to connect psychoanalysis to brain anatomy and to neural function by determining how these unconscious processes are altered in disease states and how they might be reconfigured by psychotherapy.<\/div>\n
Highlight(blue<\/span>) – 30. Learning from Memory: Prospects > Page 425 \u00b7 Location 6115<\/div>\n
Cori Bargmann, a geneticist now at Rockefeller University, has studied two variants of C. elegans that differ in their feeding patterns. One variant is solitary and seeks its food alone. The other is social and forages in groups. The only difference between the two is one amino acid in an otherwise shared receptor protein. Transferring the receptor from a social worm to a solitary worm makes the solitary worm social.<\/div>\n
Glossary<\/div>\n
Bookmark – Page 431 \u00b7 Location 6184<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind Kandel, Eric R. Citation (Chicago Style): Kandel, Eric R.. In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. Kindle edition. ONE Bookmark – 2. A Childhood in Vienna > Page 12 \u00b7 Location 348 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Notes on Kandel, In Search of Memory”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1988,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions\/1988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/alteritas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}