The Evolution of Memory Systems Ancestors, Anatomy, and Adaptations

Current theories about human memory have been shaped by clinical observations and animal experiments. This doctrine holds that the medial temporal lobe subserves one memory system for explicit or declarative memories, while the basal ganglia subserves a separate memory system for implicit or procedural memories, including habits. Cortical areas outside the medial temporal lobe are said to function in perception, motor control, attention, or other aspects of executive function, but not in memory.

'The Evolution of Memory Systems advances dramatically different ideas on all counts. It proposes that several memory systems arose during evolution and that they did so for the same general reason: to transcend problems and exploit opportunities encountered by specific ancestors at particular times and places in the distant past.

Instead of classifying cortical areas in terms of mutually exclusive perception, executive, or memory functions, the authors show that all cortical areas contribute to memory and that they do so in their own ways-using specialized neural representations. The book also presents a proposal on the evolution of explicit memory. According to this idea, explicit (declarative) memory depends on interactions between a phylogenetically ancient navigation system and a representational system that evolved in humans to represent one's self and others. As a result, people embed representations of themselves into the events they experience and the facts they learn, which leads to the perception of participating in events and knowing facts.

'The Evolution of Memory Systems is an important new work for students and researchers in neuroscience, psychology, and biology.

Elisabeth A. Murray, National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Head of the Laboratory of Neuropsychology,Steven P. Wise, National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Former Chief of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Chief of the Section on Neurophysiology of the Laboratory of Systems Neuroscience,Kim S. Graham, University of Cardiff, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

List of abbreviations
Glossary
Epigraph
Part I. Foundations of memory systems
1. The history of memory systems
2. The history of the brain
Part II. Architecture of vertebrate memory
3. The reinforcement memory systems of early animals
4. The navigation memory system of early vertebrates
5. The biased-competition memory system of early mammals
Part III. Primate augmentations
6. The manual-foraging memory system of early primates
7. The feature memory system of anthropoids
8. The goal memory system of anthropoids
Part IV. Hominin adaptations
9. The goal and feature memory systems of hominins
10. The social-subjective memory system of hominins
11. The origin of explicit memory in hominins
Part V. Deconstructing and reconstructing memory systems
12. Deconstructing amnesia
13. Reconstructing memory's past
Epilogue
Index