All Helix Center events are free and open to the public, including this one!
Roundtables are streamed live our website and the recording remains available after the event events.
This is a past event that happened on Saturday, November 7, 2015 2:30-4:30 pm.
Over the last thirty years, significant progress has been made in our understanding of the various types of memory, the neural processes of consolidation and reconsolidation, and the biochemistry of memory, as well as the malleability and limits of autobiographical memory. How might continued research help us identify the importance of memory in normal development, in terms of how our experience and recollection of it guides and affects our lives? What research directions are in development in the fight against memory impairment, an increasing concern for our long-living population? And what can memory researchers and scholars and practitioners of the art of memory learn from one another?
Participants:
Cristina Alberini
Professor in the Center for Neural Science, New York University
Cristina Alberini, Professor in the Center for Neural Science, New York University, has been studying the biological mechanisms of long-term memory for the last 20 years. Her studies explore the biological mechanisms of memory consolidation and reconsolidation, the processes by which newly learned information become long-lasting memories, and how memories are modulated and integrated into... read more! »Sven Bernecker
Professor of Philosophy, the University of California, Irvine
Sven Bernecker is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine. After obtaining his doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University, he held research positions at the University of Munich, Birkbeck College London, the University of Manchester, and the University of Vienna. He is a recipient of a Humboldt Research Award, a Member of the... read more! »Tom Carew
Professor of Neuroscience, NYU Center for Neural Science
Thomas Carew is the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at New York University, where he is also a Professor of Neural Science. Tom trained with Eric Kandel, a pioneer in the field of memory research. Tom is an elected fellow of both AAAS and the American Academy of... read more! »Martin Conway
Professor of Cognitive Psychology, City University London
Professor of Cognitive Psychology, head of the psychology department at City University London, Martin A. Conway has been studying human memory for more than thirty years. He is known for his pioneering theoretical work on autobiographical memory, as well as for his studies of the neuropsychology of memory and memory’s neurological basis. His research also... read more! »Penelope Lewis
Senior Lecturer of Neuroscience, University of Manchester
Penelope A. Lewis is a neuroscientist at the University of Manchester, where she runs the Neuroscience and Psychology of Sleep (NaPS) lab. Her research specifically investigates the role of sleep in strengthening and altering memories – and ways we can use this to our advantage. She is the author of The Secret World of Sleep, which has sold... read more! »
Memory is so fallible. What does it then mean for eyewitness testimonies. Specially when trials extend over multiple years, how are people expected to remember events that they were witness to. Does not the persistent questioning by lawyers actually change the memory, because the eyewitness is forced to complete the picture for the jury, a picture that may be incomplete to begin with in the witness’ own mind. How does one prevent the brain from filling up the gaps through its own interpretation, so that a coherent whole can be presented. Memory, as it relates to the narration of the past, is a great conversation tool, but is not an objective keeper of records. I look forward to the discussion.
Your programs look wonderful — I sometimes wish I lived in NYC instead of the depths of SoCal. Comment: Not only have you displayed some of Proust’s madeleines, without attribution, next to your Speak, Memory future event announcement, but “Speak, Memory” is the title of Vladimir Nabokov’s autobiography. You seem to have forgotten to mention that!
Listen to Martin Conway”s presentation, “When memory works and when it doesn’t” at The Stuff of Memory symposium held at the Wellcome Collection, London, on October 3, 2015:
https://soundcloud.com/wellcomecollection/when-memory-works-and-when-it-doesnt-martin-conway?in=wellcomecollection/sets/the-stuff-of-memory-symposium