Memories Are Made of This: How Memory Works in Humans and Animals

by Rusiko Bourtchouladze
Columbia Univ. Press, New York, NY, 2002
208 pp., illus. 14 b/w. Trade, $58.00; Paper, $17.95
ISBN: 0-231-12020-6; ISBN: 0-231-12021-4.

Reviewed by Rob Harle, Australia

recluse@lis.net.au

This book, at first glance, seems rather timid and to some extent understated. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Reading it closely is like drinking champagne cocktails, everything starts out innocently and gently, then bang––it hits you like a sledgehammer.

Memories are Made of This is much more than a well-written, highly readable book for general readership, concerning the nature of memory in animals and humans. It works on four somewhat distinct levels: (a) Simply, a "ripping good yarn", (b) A serious scientific exposition of the latest research on memory, (c) An overview of just how science is done, concerning politics and funding, (d) A frightening scenario for the future resulting from the misuse of scientific research findings.

Memory is one of the most important aspects of being human and, as such, warrants intense research efforts. Without memory we would have no sense of self. Brain injury and disease can have devastating effects on both long and short-term memory, many such cases are discussed throughout this book. It also describes many experiments done using animals, pretty much in a matter-of-fact way, this information might distress some readers who support the decreased use or abolition of laboratory test animals. Many of the experiments are done with mice, which is how we know, "The genome of a mouse is virtually identical to the genome of a human" (p. 166). Now I know why I like cheese so much!

Bourtchouladze’s casual writing style belies the fact that she is one of the world’s leading scientists engaged in laboratory research into the molecular, chemical, and genetic basis of memory. The first five chapters with such titles as "The Wiring of a Seahorse and Almond’s Fears and Emotions" are filled with wonderfully personal and highly relevant anecdotes. Chapter Six, "The Biology of Memory" explains in fairly technical, though not necessarily complicated language, the scientific experiments and findings that have helped piece together the little that is really known about memory. Bourtchouladze notes this dearth of knowledge regarding memory herself in the book’s Preface when she writes, "I must admit we know very little".

Chapter Seven "What Have Genes Got To Do With It?," is the sledgehammer! I was not prepared for the very serious, heavy-duty ramifications of Bourtchouladze and her colleagues’ research findings. Here we learn that "they also hold out the possibility of the manipulation of gene function with drugs. The tetracycline-regulated system has now been combined with the technique of producing region-specific mutations. This will allow us to control both when and where in the brain the gene of interest is turned on and off" (p.162)! As Bourtchouladze, to her credit, notes further on––whilst this possibility may be good news for a person with a disease such as Alzheimer’s, it will also be open to abuse in various different forms.

Simply noting this possibility in the last two or three pages of the book does not give me any sense of security against possible abuse and potential control of individuals by drugs developed from this research. Given the quote on page 165, made by Jim Watson (of Watson & Crick fame) that "[Scientists] are like Michael Douglas’ characters––a little evil and very competitive", little ease from this concern is provided. Incidentally, Watson was involved in one of the laboratories in which Bourtchouladze did much of her ground breaking research.

Research into the so-called CREB switch has become a commercial urgency! Already two pharmaceutical companies have been formed to, "search for memory-improving drugs" (p. 170). I’m not generally given to paranoia, but drugs which can turn genes on and off in the human brain in the hands of little evil scientists, funded by multi-national companies, driven by the need to make as much profit as possible worries me.

This book was written for anyone "curious to know how memories are made". It goes a long way to satisfying this curiosity and makes public, perhaps unintentionally, the covert concerns that millions of humans have regarding ‘messing about with genes’ and scientific discoveries possibly ending up in the wrong hands.