ALEXANDRA NICOLE TRELLE, a memory researcher at Stanford University, is explaining why dozens of research centres in the US are feverishly trying to understand the most effective ways of improving our powers of recall. “There are huge studies in parts of Europe too, so the scope is really…” she says, leaving dead air where more words should be. “International?” I fill in. “It’s an international effort,” she says.
Trelle’s inability to come up with the word ‘international’ is a minor lapse - nothing like the time I blanked on my next-door neighbour’s name when introducing her to a friend. But the fragility of memory is precisely why so many scientists are seeking effective ways to protect and even augment what is one of the brain’s most vital functions.
There’s some seriously stuff in the works. Neuroscientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical
