Thursday, March 24, 2011

Book Reading #32: Opening Skinner's Box

Title:
Chapter 9: Memory Inc.

Summary:
This chapter is about Kandel's experiments with sea slugs.  He probed the slugs with electric probes, and was observing how they remembered a new task.  He trained them to withdraw their gills whenever they were touched, and he was able to observe with a microscope how the neurons changed.  The more the relationship was enforced, the links between the neurons grew stronger.

Discussion:
I thought that this was an interesting chapter.  I didn't know that the synapses grew stronger the more they are used, but it makes sense.  Also, I didn't know that there are specific areas in the brain that are used for memory.

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