Memory in Contemporary Biomedicine: Cross-Disciplinary Scenarios

Abstract

Although it is true that past thinkers developed relevant taxonomies of the phenomenon of memory at the behavioral level, only in the last century has our scientific understanding of the underlying brain mechanisms of memory progressed remarkably. New acquisitions include that memory is not just a functional or physiological process, but a structural or anatomical one as well, that conceiving of memory as merely cognitive or centered on cognition is misleading, or that memory does not require any consciousness or intentionality. On the applicative side, recent technological advances offered opportunities of modifying memory with biological means, and detecting more effectively whether someone is remembering or lying. The current issue of Medicina nei Secoli is dedicated to Memory in contemporary biomedicine: cross-disciplinary scenarios. It hosts seven expert contributions to the field covering different areas of medical inquiry (i.e., immunology, neuroscience, gerontology) and humanistic-social perspectives (history, epistemology, ethics, and law).