There are many things that go into it. Yet even if Doogie isn't the Einstein of the order Rodentia, as some headline writers have portrayed him, most psychologists and neurobiologists are convinced that its memory and learning ability have indeed been enhanced. That has important implications. It suggests that even though the gulf between mice and men is continent-wide, this sort of research may eventually lead to practical medical results for humans, such as therapies to treat learning and memory disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, a condition likely to afflict more and more people in an increasingly aging population. In fact, the Princeton scientists are talking to drug companies about commercializing their work.
Therapeutic promise is only one key implication of the new research.
It can't be otherwise, since there's really no such thing as the present. Yet without a memory of what's been said, none of what you are now reading makes the slightest sense. The same is true for our lives as a whole. Memory provides personal context, a sense of self and a sense of familiarity with people and surroundings, a past and present and a frame for the future. But even as psychologists and brain researchers have learned to appreciate memory's central role in our mental lives, they have come to realize that memory is not a single phenomenon.