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George Johnson

In the Palaces of Memory: How We Build the Worlds Inside Our Heads Paperback – March 3, 1992

by George Johnson (Author)

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Even as you read these words, a tiny portion of your brain is physically changing. New connections are being sprouted—a circuit that will create a stab of recognition if you encounter the words again. That is one of the theories of memory presented in this intriguing and splendidly readable book, which distills three researchers' inquiries into the processes that enable us to recognize a face that has aged ten years or remember a melody for decades. Ranging from experiments performed on the "wetware" of the brain to attempts to re-create human cognition in computers, In the Palaces of Memory is science writing at its most exciting.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

March 3, 1992
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0679737596
ISBN-13

978-0679737599
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This elegantly written investigation of the memory-storing process includes reports from biologist Gary Lynch, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Cooper and philosopher Patricia Churchland. Illustrated.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"An eloquent foray into how our brains convert experience into knowledge. [Written] with all the alacrity of a detective gathering clues . . . with a lucidity that at times approaches artistry." -- Thea Singer, Boston Phoenix

"As a writer about the biological and human sciences, Mr. Johnson has few peers. . . . If I wanted to give readers a feel for the frontiers of cognitive neuroscience, I would send them directly to this book." -- Howard Gardner, New York Times

"Johnson has achieved a rare blend of scientific and literary sophistication. Faithful to its complexities and controversies, the book is a fully dimensional portrait, a hologram of the field." -- USA Today

"Johnson has written a fascinating book, which perhaps throws as much light on how science is done and on the scientists who do it as any book since 'The Double Helix." -- Stuart Sutherland, Nature

"Lucid, insightful. . . . Mr. Johnson imparts a huge amount of information in his clear descriptions of how the relevant experiments were conducted and interpreted. And he makes the reader feel the excitement that drives these people to devote most of their waking hours over a number of decades to the puzzle." -- John C. Marshall. New York Times Book Review

"One of the last great mysteries is the one we carry inside our heads: how we remember, what we remember, why we remember. In the Palaces of Memory is a rich and lucid guide to this entangled and enchanting domain." -- James Gleick, author of Chaos

"One of those rare books that explain to the layman in clear detail what is happening in a complex branch of science without trivializing the subject . . . fascinating and thought-provoking." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

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Product details

Publisher : Vintage; Reprint edition (March 3, 1992)
Language : English
Paperback : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 0679737596
ISBN-13 : 978-0679737599
Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,456,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,156 in Memory Improvement Self-Help
- #4,054 in Popular Neuropsychology
- #7,869 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
10 ratings

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4 star		8%
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SilverFox.jkw79

Lots of good data in here

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2014

Verified Purchase

Lots of good data in here. Ingo Swann recommended this book for people who want to find out what makes us tick.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Ralph Vicini

George Johnson's book, "In the Palace of Memories," is a work of Genius.

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2013

Verified Purchase

George Johnsons' writing opens a new door in literature...the door of Magnificence. I recommend his book very highly to everyone who enjoy's reading and feeling the excitement of new discoveries. I want to thank my Mentor-Mr. Ingo Swann for pointing out the brilliance of this book and it's ability to lead you through the enigma of the brain, "In the Palaces of Memory."

2 people found this helpful

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anonymous

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2015

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Great price, great shipping.

One person found this helpful

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DORDE SORONDA

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great. Thanks.

One person found this helpful

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jbsdad

can't judge a book by its cover

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2011

Verified Purchase

an interesting book, to be sure: well researched and adequately written. BUT: Don't think from the title you're going to learn more about how to use the "memory palace" technique. Not gonna happen. The book is technical, almost bio-medical, in its treatment of memory. Interesting, as I said...but not if your goal is to learn a little about how memory works and a lot more about how to improve YOUR memory.

7 people found this helpful

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Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2011

George Johnson is not only a superb writer, he's one of those rare writers of popular science books who actually seems to have a very good understanding of what he's writing about. In this case it's the basics of what was, at the time of the writing of this book, the emerging new multidisciplinary Neurosciences. During the 1980s psychologists, neurobiologists, computer scientists, philosophers and even engineers started talking together and even working together on models of the complete spectrum of neuroscience, ranging from models of individual neurons and neural networks to models of cognitive functions and human performance. This was an exciting time to be in the neuroscience, with new and often competing models emerging, it seemed, every month.

Johnson begins with the question of how learning occurs at the lowest levels- that is, what is the biology and the chemistry that enables permanent changes to be made in how and when an individual cell alters its response to stimuli? By means of illustration- and to introduce a bit of drama to the story- Johnson plays the competing theories of two groups, those who believed changes occurred prior to the synapse (i.e., in the cell sending the signal) and those who believed changes occurred after the synapse- and personifies these two groups in the competing theories of Eric Kandell, a major figure to this day, and Gary Lynch, then a young and up-and-coming challenger. This first part of the book is outstanding in the clarity of its presentation of material.

Form there Johnson takes us into the worlds of simulation and neural networks, which involves a trip back to the 1950s, when a small group of engineers at MIT and a few other schools began looking into ho neural functions could be instantiated in hardware. McCullogh and Pitts realized that it was possible to describe a calculus of neurons and neural function in humans and other animals, and some researchers even built artificial neurons and neural networks out of the analog hardware of the era- vacuum tubes, potentiometers, resistors and capacitors. This work was ignored by biologists and physiologists of the time, and only began to be rediscovered in the 1980s, when neural networks started emerging at the hottest topic in cognitive and (as it was called then) physiological psychology.

The last section of the book is concerned with the philosophers like Patricia Churchland who increasingly found herself troubled that those doing philosophy of mind and those doing psychology were working on the same problems, and yet never spoke to one another- even though each group had much to contribute to the other in refining what sorts of questions could be asked about human cognition and perception.

If there is a flaw in this book it's that it's now (2011) twenty years old. Some of the theories being put forward then have found support, some have been rejected, and some have been replaced by newer models. Some, like the question of the role of NMDA receptors in Long Term Potentiation (LTM) of synapses, are still not completely understood. Tools like functional MRI (fMRI) have given the upper hand to the physiologists (for the moment, at least) and the neurophilosophers don't have quite the influence they had in the late 1980s.

Yet this is still an excellent book, well worth reading. Understanding what has happened in the neurosciences in the last 20 years requires a firm knowledge of how we got here, and to that end, I would strongly recommend this book to interested lay readers, and undergraduates and high school students with and interest in the philosophy, psychology, medicine or neurophysiology..

7 people found this helpful

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Russell A. Rohde MD

We know Why, but Where, What and How is Memory Stored?

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2005

"In The Palaces of Memory," George Johnson, NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1991 ISBN 0-394-58348-5, HC 256 pg. plus 6 pg. Preface, 4 pg. Prelude, 6 pg. Reflections, 10 pg. Notes, 3 pg. Bibio., & 8 pg. Index 9/12" x 6 3/8" Its Johnson's 3rd book on mind & memory, a seasoned writer with NY Times.

He writes with an easy-to-read style on subject matter oft ordinarily shunned when over-zealous writers flaunt excesses of pseudo-proficiency in scientific matters. He conjures a comfortable path for the reader to grasp the stamina & passion in pursuit of those elusive mysterious (?spooky) behavioral concepts underlying origin, storage, and retrieval of thought(s) which compose the mind & memory: -- is it hooked in series or parallel? as brain computer? or neuronal network? Why? and what's the evidence?

The story is largely told via interviewing sciences of biology, physics & philosophy with respective revelations by 3 real theorists: Gary Lynch, Leon Cooper & Patricia Churchland who largely cede rationalism in favor of empiricism -- i.e. classical scientific theory.

Many scientists approach their chosen clallenges with great fevor, often forced to make sacrifices in Academia. Helpful is availability of networking among associates to allow team effort facilitating attack on complex problems. Having been in research myself I can attest to the unwritten but readily perceived adversarial milieu which permeates Ivory Towers & that tests the courage & conviction of researchers toward their working hypotheses. Johnson devoted nearly 5 years to provide us with a true spirit of the memory palaces inhabited by intellectual theorists.

One person found this helpful

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