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In her generous review of Permanent Present Tense: The Man with No Memory and What He Taught the World, Suzanne Corkin¡¯s enthralling study of the amnesiac Henry Molaison, Morgan Barense highlights the text¡¯s ¡°comprehensive and engaging review of how the field of neuroscience came to learn what we know about memory¡± (Books, ?June).

Corkin indeed rightly covers the major contributions to the field from North America, but completely ignores the pioneering and influential work of Soviet scientist A.?R.?Luria (1902-77). He also investigated and treated a brain-damaged patient, known as ¡°Zasetsky¡±, over an extended period. Luria opposed the view that memory is localised in specific areas of the brain and instead proposed a comprehensive functional system that extends into the cultural-historical world.

R.?E. Rawles
Honorary research fellow in psychology
University College London