Join the World Science Festival Mailing List
The Biological Mechanism That Gives Life Meaning
As the title of our program The Unbearable Lightness of Memory suggests, memory is much more than the process by which we recall errands or birthdays. Memory—how information obtained from experience is stored in the brain—is also the mechanism that molds our sense of the world. As Homo sapiens, we inherited a basic neural circuitry for processing information about our environment. This circuitry, laid down by the instructions in our DNA, endows us with instinctual human behaviors as well as innate emotional predispositions and cognitive capabilities. But it is devoid of content. All of the specific information that forms an individual mind is learned and then maintained in memory.
Read More