'Memory and the Brain' - Using, Losing, and Improving' a Book Review by Brenda Walker

25th Feb 2025

BNA Associate member, Brenda Walker, shares her review of the book ' Memory and the Brain - Using, Losing, and Improving', John P. Aggleton, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2025 

    Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, John P. Aggleton, provides an impressive up-to-date exploration of memory; that mysterious entity that can be enhanced, suddenly depleted, or prone to long-term deceptiveness. From womb to shroud the neurons involved in learning and all the facets of memory evolve, and the brain reflects such changes. Starting with the memory of his own bereavement, the author’s voice is always present, threaded with harmonic examples from life’s experiences, including his own. e draws upon HHHe draws upon world events, past and present, as well as everyday happenings in our social and cultural lives by injecting classical and modern references, all of which encapsulate the many concepts and theories his dense, but fascinating text unravels. At present, Aggleton works in the Psychology department of Cardiff University, but in 2012, his research in this field was already known world-wide, and in recognition of his discoveries he was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy. 

     The prose is written in an easy to absorb, friendly style and a reader new to this field will welcome the fact that clear explanations for the many names of the various types of memory are repeated as reminders throughout the early chapters. Also elucidated is terminology that otherwise may be familiar only to specialists in the respective areas of psychology or psychiatry. In his preface Aggleton states: ‘No technical expertise is required to enjoy this book, just a curious mind. (The state of being curious helps the brain to engage in more effective learning.)   

     Memory and the Brain is an attractive, easy to handle book available in paperback and hardback editions, the latter being four times more expensive, but the author’s royalties on both editions are to be donated to the charity Brain Tumour Research.  Accompanying the text are ninety-three Figures consisting of relevant and interesting black and white photographs; specific drawings; diagrams, and illustrations of clearly labelled major human brain structures. There are seven pages of references and a comprehensive index.  At the start of each chapter, there is a short, relevant quotation, chosen from many subject areas, ranging from literature, history, psychology, philosophy, films, essayists, politicians, old proverbs and aphorisms.  Within the text of the volume, Aggleton effectuates his subject matter by referring to modern TV soaps such as Fools and Horses or Friends, while other ‘real-world applications’ illustrate his many detailed accounts. 

     When reading through this volume, one is aware that memories indeed ‘make us what we are’.  In each of the nineteen chapters and also in the final ‘Alphabet Curiosities’, the reader’s internal voice is elicited to silently join this discourse of paramount importance to humanity.  The opening chapter captures the attention with a paradox: How do we know that a memory we hold is original or has been replaced over time, slowly – image by image? Having elaborated on the ‘good news’ aspect  regarding the amazing memory capacity of the human brain and the achievements that can be obtained by the approximately 85 billion neurons interacting to create pathways and patterns of brain activity, the author modifies his enthusiasm by reminding us of the ‘bad news’. Our memories have the ability to deceive.      

     Aggleton’s rich volume of academic excellence, written to help professionals, students or just curious lovers of factual information, stresses the importance of the need to establish ‘how memory works and how it fails’.  He addresses this by first explaining the fundamental distinctions between long-term memory, verbal and non-verbal, and its division into two categories: explicit, (dubbed the moon’s bright side as it is consciously assessed) and implicit, (the dark side, as skilled sensorimotor actions are no longer in our conscious awareness.  On page 6, Figure 1, memory divisions  are depicted in a diagram revealing sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory together with all their other sub-divisions, while on page 170, Figure 17.4,  another diagram illustrates the divisions of long term memory divided into two sections: explicit memory and implicit memory. Explicit memory sub-divides into two: episodic memory and semantic memory, whereas, implicit memory sub-divides into four: procedural memory, classical conditioning, priming and habitation. Finally, the critical structures of the brain are also listed and set alongside each of these six types of memory, which is a great asset to the reader who can now see at a glance the pathways involved. 

       Also in the opening chapter, is an overview of the book that arouses the reader’s curiosity regarding the forthcoming multiple aspects of memory, involving: research on a mother and her developing foetus; adolescence; middle and later years; and finally the ‘super-agers’ and those with superior memories.  Amnesia and Dementia are to be discussed in Chapters 17 and 18 where their relation to the brain is also highlighted. The author then explains that as ‘not all aspects of memory fit into these categories’, Chapter 19 has been included to illustrate twenty six phenomena, many of which ‘bring the laboratory into the real world.’ Chapter 20 provides a Glossary for ‘Naming the Brain’ and Chapter 21 lists ‘Twenty (plus one) ways to improve your memory’.  There follows a short but detailed mini-glossary of terms and the divisions of memory already mentioned in this initial chapter. A very useful strategy, for there is certainly ‘a lot to take in.’    

     The chapters that follow this introduction guide the reader through theories and concepts where research results are appraised. This method is continued throughout. Fallacies are discussed, and after a meta-analysis, any poor contemporary research methods are criticised and neuroscience myths demolished. 

     Recent cognitive developmental research (Bortfeld and Bunge 2024) revealed how a child’s development is affected by both the environment and the experiences it encounters from people who interact with the child.  However, these authors also describe a happening that took place during the Second World War when 20,000 Dutch people died of starvation. As records were kept, it was later found that the children developing in utero during this period experienced a life-long increase in the chances of becoming seriously ill, and many died young.  Before discussing epigenetics in humans, Aggleton describes animal experiments that have revealed not only how brain health can be influenced by the environment, but that such an effect can also be ‘transgenerational’.  Apparently, a mother mouse, reared in a ‘complex, enriched environment’ produced offspring that revealed superior memories despite never having shared the rich environment enjoyed by the mother.  The mother’s genes stay fixed, but the author comments that this result ‘seems to reflect how the expression of some genes is affected by the mother’s environment’.  As with the event described above, that happened during the last war, such occurrences are deemed epigenetic. 

    If a mother, (pregnant or otherwise) or child, experience poverty, malnutrition, a toxic atmosphere and among other things, a lack of education, the developing brain will suffer damaging effects. The author, quoting base statistics given by the World Inequality Database on Education, and supported by UNESCO, reveals that in the not too recent past, 200 million children were found not to be fulfilling their developmental potential. Today, with recent wars and epidemics, the total has surely increased. Aggleton recalls another example of epigenetics when he reminds us of the situation found in Romanian orphanages during the early 1990’s after the demise of Nicolae Ceaușescu. In cases where children or babies were later adopted, it was found that those who had suffered such neglect for less than four months were less affected, but many of the others, despite having experienced enriched care and environments after adoption, revealed a reduced intelligent quotient, due to under stimulation and chronic deprivation. To contribute a personal note – the Sisters in charge of Mother Teresa’s Orphanage, who subsequently gave love, stimulation and care to many of these children, were witness to similar results. 

     In Chapter 12, entitled ‘Imagination, future memory, and prospective memory’, Aggleton explains the activation of the different brain areas when our minds time-travel imaginatively forwards or look backwards at past events. Experiments have revealed that past episodic memories and future simulations share core attributes and a common network. So there is an overlap of episodic stimulation when the brain is not involved with cognitive tasks (its default network). The author goes on to explain that such overlapping should be no surprise as  mind-wandering can take us to both real and imaginary scenarios.  

     General readers or students should not feel burdened by detailed theoretical explanations that sometimes appear in a close-set page of text, as the context is usually well balanced and sectioned.  For example, when discussing recall of past memories and those predicted with episodic foresight (instances known as Prospective learning), the author concludes by questioning whether birds and non-primates might also be able to time-travel and consider their future needs. Do monkeys possess what is called a ‘theory of mind’,  described by the author as: ‘The ability to behave as though you can understand and take into account the mental state of others, sometimes called mind-reading’. Disputed or not, there are elements in the given examples that suggest foresight is not only to be found in humans.  

         Nearly every chapter of this book contains information relevant, not just for teachers and their students, but for all educational establishments.  Aggleton reminds us that ‘Memory is the key to learning,’ and  knowledge regarding brain health and development is seen as equally important for governments, judges in courts of law and those in any profession involving care for others.  Indeed, this volume covers so many interesting facts that not all the details could be included in this review.  However, below are just a few of the questions readers  might ask, to which they will find stimulating, detailed answers as they explore John P. Aggleton’s fascinating  text on the following:  

Can the unborn child learn and remember while developing in the womb? 

     By examining early studies from the 30s and 40s, and then the 80s, Aggleton assures us that foetal learning is ‘a realistic possibility’. This is surmised because the junction between two neurons named a synapse, can form as early as week 10, thus enabling communication between them. This network of neural plasticity and a fast developing communication system of multiple synapses does suggest that two months before birth, the foetus is aware of vibrations and sounds emanating from the body of the mother. Learning is said to be taking place if there is classic conditioning (as in Pavlov’s dog experiment) and also what is known as habituation. In other words: ‘the reduction in reaction to a repeated, neutral stimulus that has no particular biological significance’.  

     As to remembering while in the womb, the author recounts an experiment carried out by Peter Hepper, who jokingly referred to it as ‘foetal soap addiction’. Hepper chose two groups of pregnant mothers, but only one group regularly watched the Australian soap Neighbours. A few days after the births the same theme tune was played to babies from each group. There was no reaction in any of the new-borns from the group of mothers who had never watched this TV show.  However, the babies from the other group became more alert and their hearts rates registered a decrease. This Aggleton refers to as ‘Preference learning’. 

Why can’t we remember our early lives before the ages of three or four? 

    The chapter on childhood amnesia answers this question. Put simply, the young child’s brain structure and functions go on developing and so by the time they reach their fourth or fifth birthday, the hippocampus and other structures connected with early memories have changed so much that they are no longer accessible.  As Aggleton explains: it’s been rebuilt! 

Does sleep aid learning? 

    The value of sleep is discussed for animals as well as humans when the author sets about answering many questions about the need for ‘a good night’s sleep’. So why do some people have poor quality sleep? There are many pages that comment on both REM and NREM sleep, and the different areas of brain activity they exhibit. Sleep and memory, involving subsequent learning and retention are discussed, as are dreams, their content, recall, and forgetting.  Also considered is implicit memory; napping and problem solving.  As to the question of whether we can learn while asleep – the jury is still out. ‘There are no convincing demonstrations of new explicit memories for events taking place during confirmed sleep. Although, as described, both priming and classical conditioning can take place during sleep, many studies have failed to demonstrate implicit learning. The reasons remain uncertain, but one factor is likely to be the stage of sleep at the time of the implicit memory learning’. 

Why we forget where we put things? Am I losing my memory? 

    As recent statistics have revealed, more people will be reaching their 100th birthday in the years to come. What is not known, if the age of the population continues to rise, is just how many will succumb to losing their memories due either to accident, or to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.  The volume’s chapters on amnesia, brief short- term and brief working memory stores, enlighten the reader on the astonishing, intricate complexity of the brain and the tragedy of its destruction over time.  

****** 

     Despite worrying about losing memories, most people are keen to improve them. The final chapter of this book suggests twenty (plus one) ways to do so, headed with a comment attributed to the late Benjamin Franklin:  

‘Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn’. 

    John P. Aggleton’s Memory and the Brain is a remarkable work that always involves the reader, and should be much appreciated by all those curious minds that have been waiting for such a volume to come on the market.   It is a book to capture your imagination; to delve into; to study a novel area in depth; or – if you are simply in the mood to relax while still exploring, you can always turn to Alphabet Curiosities:  the twenty-six short, absorbing topics that make such good bed-time reading.   

Brenda Walker                                                                                                   February 2025