In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind

Written by Dr. Jerry Stein

Eric Kandel is currently a professor at Columbia University. He jointly won the Nobel Prize in 2000 for his work on the physiology of memory.

As a young scientist in the 1960’s, Kandel speculated that learning might be an ancient and fundamental strategy of evolution. He tested this theory by studying the giant marine snail, Aplysia, and, after many years of research, concluded that “elementary forms of learning are common to all animals” (p. 144).

His work demonstrates that learning occurs even at the cellular level; responding to information from the environment and being able to remember the information in such a way that survival and continuity are enhanced is a fundamental process of living organisms. This discovery supports the Darwinian understanding that survival (continuity) and learning (adaptability) are as ancient as life itself. In light of these findings, it is no longer possible to understand learning as simply a human or even a mammalian activity.

Kandel brilliantly argues that learning and life are creative attempts to combine connections and possibilities from among vast possibilities, or as he concludes, “learning may be a matter of combining various elementary forms of synaptic plasticity into new and more complex forms, much as we use an alphabet to form words” (p. 205).

Kandel’s theory is an inspiring and scientific vision of a world suffused with learning at all levels of existence. It places our understanding of learning in a very broad context: ancient, evolutionary, and dynamic – and it irrevocably locates learning beyond the world of schooling.

Resources:

Kandel, E. R. (2006). In Search of Memory: The emergence of a new science of mind.