If one is to make a judgment on the basis of behavior, it is appearent that man is not alone in the possession of a mind. The ant(whose nervous system is a highly complicated structure), as well as such mammals as the beaver or the dog or chimpanzee, show evidence of consciousness and of individual purpose. The brain, we may assume, makes consciousness possible in him too. In all of these forms, as in man, memory is a function of the brain. Animals, particularly, show evidence of what may be called racial memory. Secondly, new memories are acquired in the form of conditioned reflexes. In the case of man, these preserve the skills, the memory of words, and the memory of non-verbal concepts. Then there is, in man at least, the third important form of memory, experiential memory, and the possibility of recalling the stream of consciousness with varying degrees of completeness. In this form of memory and in speech, the convolutions, which have appeared in the temporal lobe of man as a late evolutionary addition, are employed as speech-cortex and interpretive-cortex."

The imprint of memory's engram is somehow added during neuronal action. Conscious attention seems to give to that passage of neuronal impulses permanent facilitation for subsequent passage of potentials along the neuronal connections in the same pattern. Thus, a recall engram is established. This, one may suggest, is the real secret of learning. It is effective in the memory based on conditioned reflexes.(Penfield)



* Memory mechanism in the immunity system and in the brain.

world 1 | world 2 | world 3 | guest book | HOME |