Rodrigo Quian Quiroga

7/10

A well-written discussion of human memory as it related to Borges. Very easy reading if you have a bit of background knowledge of psychology. For me, the book didn't delve as deeply into the neuroscience as I hoped, nor did it discuss Borges as much as I would have liked. The content is good, however, it's just that I was already familiar with much of what Quiroga discusses. Some of the most interesting sections were the ones in which he describes findings by his fellow Argentine scientists. I also enjoyed him quoting Borges' poetry, which I am less familiar with.

Due to the shortness of the work he wasn't able to go fully into the studies that he did on the "Jennifer Aniston neuron". Though I will withhold judgement until I read the primary work, the interpretation he gave of the function of the conceptual neurons was not satisfying to me. To even compare them to the so-called "grandmother cells" makes little sense. He presents no evidence that the neurons are not just a component part of a chain that processes an abstract concept. The length of the book likely impacted this section, so i'll read his primary sources to get to the bottom of it.

All that said, I do recommend this book to anybody slightly interested in either psychology/neuroscience or Jorge Luis Borges. Lots of interesting ideas inside.… (plus d'informations)