## Metadata - Author: [[Eric R. Kandel]] - Full Title: In Search of Memory - Category: #books ## Highlights - It is only when the facts become clear and competing interpretations of them can be brought into sharp focus that opposing hypotheses can clash. And only when sharply focused ideas clash can one of them be found wrong. Being on the wrong side of an interpretation was unimportant, Popper argued. The greatest strength of the scientific method is its ability to disprove a hypothesis. Science proceeds by endless and ever refining cycles of conjecture and refutation. ([Location 1495](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002PQ7B5O&location=1495)) - THE REALIZATION THAT THE WORKINGS OF THE BRAIN—THE ability not only to perceive, but to think, learn, and store information—may occur through chemical as well as electrical signals expanded the appeal of brain science from anatomists and electrophysiologists to biochemists. In addition, since biochemistry is a universal language of biology, synaptic transmission piqued the interest of the biological science community as a whole, not to mention students of behavior and mind, like me. ([Location 1572](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002PQ7B5O&location=1572)) - (We now know that serotonin acts on as many as eighteen different types of receptors throughout the brain and that LSD seems to produce its hallucinatory action by stimulating one of these receptors, located in the frontal lobe of the brain.) ([Location 1617](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002PQ7B5O&location=1617)) - It was clear to me that learning and memory are central to psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. After all, aspects of many psychological problems are learned, and psychoanalysis is based on the principle that what is learned can be unlearned. In a large sense, learning and memory are central to our very identity. They make us who we are. ([Location 1766](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002PQ7B5O&location=1766)) - Broca’s findings provided the first empirical evidence that a well-defined mental capacity could be assigned to a specific region of the cortex. Since all the patients’ lesions were in the left hemisphere, Broca established that the two hemispheres, though apparently symmetrical, have different roles. This discovery led him to announce, in 1864, one of the most famous principles of brain function: “Nous parlons avec l’hémisphère gauche!” (We speak with the left hemisphere!) ([Location 1847](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002PQ7B5O&location=1847)) - We now have reason to believe that long-term memory is stored in the cerebral cortex. Moreover, it is stored in the same area of the cerebral cortex that originally processed the information—that is, memories of visual images are stored in various areas of the visual cortex, and memories of tactile experiences are stored in the somatosensory cortex ([Location 1950](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B002PQ7B5O&location=1950))