The neurogenetics of remembering emotions past

摘要

Even if you have not waded through all seven volumes of Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (1), you are probably familiar with its most famous scene where the narrator bites into a little cake called a madeleine, dipped in tea, and experiences a wash of vivid emotional memories. This literary moment has captured popular imagination (madeleines are now sold by Starbucks) because it so effectively captures the powerful and involuntary nature of emotional memory. Indeed, Proust's novels developed a distinction between voluntary and involuntary memories: The former involve more of our own efforts, but it is the latter, often characterized by emotions, that form the narrative of our life stories. Regarding his own flood of emotional memories Proust asked, "Whence did it come?