Borges and Memory: Encounters with the Human Brain

In this meditation on contemporary developments in neuroscience and the work of Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, Quiroga, a neuroscientist currently serving as Professor and Director of the Bioengineering Research Centre at the University of Leicester, relates his research into the cognitive structure of memory to Borges's literary exploration of memory in short stories like "Funes the Memorious." In "Funes," a story about a man who remembers everything (or, more precisely, a man who forgets nothing) but cannot understand abstractions, Quiroga discovers an analogue to neuroscientific research on how "neurons in the human brain that respond to abstract concepts%E2%80%A6 play a key role in turning what we perceive%E2%80%A6 into long-term memories." Quiroga leads an idiosyncratic tour through neuroscientific studies, case histories of "extraordinary memory" (including that of Kim Peek, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man), brain anatomy, and contemporary theories about the neurophysiology of vision. As a work of popular science (not unlike the writing of Oliver Sacks at times), Quiroga's work is satisfying, though it is less successful as a work of literary criticism: his analysis of Borges helps us to understand how neuroscience works, but his analysis of neuroscience does little to help us understand how Borges works. 34 illus. (Oct.)