[MD] memory and the brain

[Krimel]

http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/science-technology/sheldrake-morphogenic-field-m
emory-lashley-collective-unconscious-3486.html

good article on brain and mind.

[Krimel]
Good example of how useless Sheldrake's notions have proven to be. The
article was written in 1987 and its impact either in terms of modifying or
creating a theory or stimulating research has amounted to squat.

Lashley was the neuroscientist who sought to find the particular areas where
memory resides. There was some optimism about this because particular areas
of the brain have been identified for sensation, motor function, emotions
and a host of other cognitive functions. Lashley concluded that memory was
distributed throughout the brain. Subsequent research has demonstrated that
some kinds of learning may indeed be located in the cerebellum, an unlikely
place to find it, I would say. But this may be an artifact of the very
specific kind of classically conditioned learning that produced these
results.

Eric Kandel, who is also mentioned, did research on sea slugs to demonstrate
the biochemical basis of memory formation. He found that rather than being
the result of the growth of new neurons or of new connections between
neurons, memory results from biochemical changes in the neurons affected as
we learn. What happens is that neural pathways become more efficient in
sending signals as we learn.

Experience as I have tried to insist is not a unity at all it is the
illusion of unity. Any experience triggers stimulation of a variety of
neural pathways, visual, auditory, emotional and so forth. All of these
different pathways become associated together in memory and as they are
different pathways and as they are distributed throughout the brain it is
perhaps not surprising that they do not appear to be localized. Unity is the
result of the common patterning of these distributed pathways acting in
concert.