查看文章

Memory--the capacity to bring elements of an experience from one moment in time to another is the unique property of life forms. This remarkable property-the carrying of information across time-is the foundation of every biological process from reproduction to gene expression to cell division–from receptor-mediated communication to the development of more complex physiological systems (including neurodevelopment). To some degree, all of the organ systems in the human body have “memory.” This ability to carry elements of previous experience forward in time is the basis of the immune, the neuromuscular, and neuroendocrine systems. Through complex physiological processes, elements of experience can even be carried across generations. Elements of the collective experience of the species are reflected in the genome, while the experience of the individual is reflected in the expression of that genome.

No other biological system has developed more sophisticated capacity to make and store internal representations of the external world–and the internal world–than the human central nervous system, the human brain. All nerve cells ‘store’information in a fashion that is contingent upon previous patterns of activity (see Singer, 1995; Thoenen, 1995). Neurons are specifically designed to modify in response to external cues (eg, neurohormones, neurotransmitters, neurotrophic factors; Lauder, 1988). These neurophysiological and molecular neurobiological properties underlie all of the complex functions mediated by the brain (thinking, feeling and acting). During development, the cognitive, motor, emotional and ‘state’-regulating areas of the …