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Memory and Optogenetic Intervention: Separating the Engram from the Ecphory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Sarah K. Robins
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Abstract

Optogenetics makes possible the control of neural activity with light. In this article, I explore how the development of this experimental tool has brought about methodological and theoretical advances in the neurobiological study of memory. I begin with Semon’s distinction between the engram and the ecphory, explaining how these concepts present a methodological challenge to investigating memory. Optogenetics provides a way to intervene into the engram without the ecphory that, in turn, opens up new means for testing theories of memory error. I focus on a series of experiments where optogenetics is used to study false memory and forgetting.

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Type
Cognitive Sciences
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 85 , Issue 5 , December 2018 , pp. 1078 - 1089
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

Many thanks to John Bickle for organizing the PSA 2016 symposium Intervention and Progress: Optogenetics and Control over Neural Systems, where this article was originally presented. Thanks, too, for comments and feedback from the audience and my fellow symposium participants, Carl Craver and Jacqueline Sullivan.

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