The Amnesias: A Clinical Textbook of Memory Disorders, by
Andrew C. Papanicolaou. 2005. New York: Oxford University Press, 336 pp.,
$57.50 (HB).
Memory is one of the best-studied complex cognitive functions
described in the neuropsychological literature. Excellent textbooks and
research articles about memory and the brain are, and continue to be,
published. Yet, it is difficult to integrate clinical and applied features
of memory disorders with basic science data. This may be due to our
uncertainty about whether a damaged brain functions like a healthy brain
and whether results about cerebral functioning and memory processes for a
healthy individual can be applied equally well to someone who has incurred
brain damage. Brain circuitry is altered in the presence of brain injury,
including the mechanisms of remembering and forgetting. Basic clinical
studies of normal memory teach us what is “not” normal but we
have learned far less about “how” the brain really functions
in the presence of amnesia.