Lonni Sue Johnson was a successful illustrator, when the herpes simplex virus attacked her brain; she lost almost her entire lifetime of knowledge, along with the ability to form new memories. Michael Lemonick describes how she’s invaluable to neuroscientists working to understand how we make and store memories.
memory
Posted inEditor's Pick
Living In the Now
Lonni Sue can paint, but not name a painting; learn new music without knowing a tune. Scientific American opinion editor Michael Lemonick explore what she’s is teaching us about memory.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
But What’s IT All About?: How We Forgot the Murderous Clown
Adrian Daub’s fascinating essay in the LA Review of Books on the Stephen King classic IT — now 30 years old — reveals that the real horror of IT wasn’t Pennywise the supernatural clown, but our own, entirely human ability to forget the horrors of the past.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Quotes
On Food, Family, and Love: A Recipe For Memory
At Oxford American, Ronni Lundy maps her past with family recipes.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Quotes
On Food, Family, and Love: A Recipe For Memory
At Oxford American, Ronni Lundy maps her past with family recipes.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Our Memories Are Not What They Used to Be
Sophie McBain asks what will become of human memory at the age of smartphones, social media, and unlimited storage in the cloud.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Murder in Hawaii: The Two Trials of Maryann Acker
After three decades, author Linda Spaldin tries to help exonerate a woman on whose trial she had been a juror.
Posted inBooks, Quotes, Story
How Mary Karr Teaches Her Students About Memory: A Short Excerpt from ‘The Art of Memoir’
The celebrated memoirist uses a little deception and a judicious ‘fuck’ to make a point.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Proustian Powers of Ice Cream
Ice cream is Proustian. One bite can send you time-traveling decades back, to a hot summer day, when you walked barefoot on shell-dappled Gulf sands, vanilla ice cream dripping over the sides of a cone and onto your fingers. Maybe it was a reward for the first time you lost a tooth, a sweet, cold dish […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Why We Dream About Our Childhood Homes
Sigmund Freud called dreams ”the royal road to the unconscious” and theorized that they reflected highly individual unconscious wishes. His student Carl Jung, who later broke with him, thought the recurring use of enduring symbols in dreams, like mazes, mirrors and snakes, reflected something more collective and universal. *** Many people interviewed said they dreamed […]