The neurobiology of celebrity worship
July 8, 2014The 5th edition of Biological Science by Scott Freeman et al. includes the following figure.
Summarizing the study (R.Q. Quiroga et al., Nature 435: 1102-7, 2005) on which this figure was based, the textbook says, “Through experience, at least one of this patient’s neurons became singularly devoted to the concept of Jennifer Aniston.”
With this example, the textbook authors raise the issue of whether memories are stored in specific neurons rather than in distributed networks.
Are they are also implying that we collectively devote too many neurons to Jennifer Aniston and not enough to, say, Rita Levi-Montalcini?
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