I think our culture really reveres memory and intellect almost to a fault. You're also saying it's imperfect, and I suppose that's the part of it that is hard for most of us to accept. I suppose what I'm hearing from you is that memory is just being human, right? It's essential to the experience of being human…. WATCH: Lisa Genova on how to connect with someone who has Alzheimer'sĭuration 0:38 VIDEO: How to connect with someone who has Alzheimer's Then to imagine that slippery slope is justifiably terrifying. So if we start to feel like we're losing a grip on that - and then maybe you've had a loved one who had Alzheimer's and you've witnessed the devastation of a person becoming detached from all the memories, all the personal history. It gives us a sense of who we've been and who we are. We need memory to get on the Zoom calls.īut memory is also attached to our identity. We need memory to know the people in our lives.

We need memory to be able to brush our teeth. I think because memory is so essential and pervasive for pretty much everything we do. It is so common … so why is it so scary when we start to feel like we're losing our memories? We have all had those kinds of moments that your readers confess, forgetting where we put the keys…. Genova spoke to Chattopadhyay about how our brains create and alter memories, and why we forget. 'We do need to forget the things that are habitual, inconsequential, routine,' she told The Sunday Magazine's Piya Chattopadhyay, in order to bring the things that matter to the foreground. Lisa Genova unravels Huntington's disease in 'Inside the O'Briens'.

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