An essential behind-the-scenes foray into the world of
cutting-edge memory research that unveils findings
about memory loss only now available to general readers.
When Sue Halpern decided to emulate the first modern
scientist of memory, Hermann Ebbinghaus, who experimented
on himself, she had no idea that after a day of radioactive
testing, her brain would become so “hot” that leaving
through the front door of the lab would trigger the alarm.
This was not the first time while researching Can’t
Remember What I Forgot, part of which appeared in The New
Yorker, that Halpern had her head examined, nor would it be
the last.
Halpern spent years in the company of the neuroscientists,
pharmacologists, psychologists, nutritionists, and
inventors who are hunting for the genes and molecules, the
drugs and foods, the machines, the prosthetics, the
behaviors and therapies that will stave off Alzheimer’s and
other forms of dementia and keep our minds–and memories–
intact. Like many of us who have had a relative or friend
succumb to memory loss, who are getting older, who are
hearing statistics about our own chances of falling victim
to dementia, who worry that each lapse of memory portends
disease, Halpern wanted to find out what the experts
really knew, what the bench scientists were working on, how
close science is to a cure, to treatment, to accurate early
diagnosis, and, of course, whether the crossword puzzles,
sudokus, and ballroom dancing we’ve been told to take up
can really keep us lucid or if they’re just something to do
before the inevitable overtakes us.
Beautifully written, sharply observed, and deeply informed,
Can’t Remember What I Forgot is a book full of vital
information–and a solid dose of hope.
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