Steve Ramirez, "How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past" (Princeton UP, 2025)

Jan 19, 2026

In this engaging discussion, Dr. Steve Ramirez, an award-winning neuroscientist and author, explores the transformative nature of memory. He shares his groundbreaking work on creating false memories in mice and discusses the dynamic quality of memory, which can be edited and reshaped. The conversation delves into the ethics of memory manipulation for healing, particularly in addressing PTSD and depression. Ramirez also connects memory to identity and the imagination, hinting at a future where memories might be mapped and restored, raising fascinating questions about who we really are.

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INSIGHT

Memories Are Dynamic Brain Constellations

The engram is the brain's physical trace of a memory, a shifting constellation of cells rather than a static imprint.
Memory snapshots change continuously, so researchers capture only brief moments of an ever-moving target.

INSIGHT

Memory Is Distributed, Not Handed Off

Memories recruit widespread brain regions simultaneously, not just a single handoff from hippocampus to cortex.
That three-dimensional pattern refines over time, making older memories feel fuzzier or different.

INSIGHT

Recall Rewrites Memories Every Time

Every recall reconstructs and modifies a memory rather than replaying a fixed recording.
Recall acts like applying filters, so memories morph with mood, context, and new information.

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As a graduate student at MIT, Steve Ramirez successfully created false memories in the lab. Now, as a neuroscientist working at the frontiers of brain science, he foresees a future where we can replace our negative memories with positive ones. In How to Change a Memory, Ramirez draws on his own memories--of friendship, family, loss, and recovery--to reveal how memory can be turned on and off like a switch, edited, and even constructed from nothing.

A future in which we can change our memories of the past may seem improbable, but in fact, the everyday act of remembering is one of transformation. Intentionally editing memory to improve our lives takes advantage of the brain's natural capacity for change.

In How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past (Princeton UP, 2025), Ramirez explores how scientists discovered that memories are fluid--they change over time, can be erased, reactivated, and even falsely implanted in the lab. Reflecting on his own path as a scientist, he examines how memory manipulation shapes our imagination and sense of self. If we can erase a deeply traumatic memory, would it change who we are? And what would that change mean anyway? Throughout, Ramirez carefully considers the ethics of artificially controlling memory, exploring how we might use this tool responsibly--for both personal healing and the greater good.

A masterful blend of memoir and cutting-edge science, How to Change a Memory explores how neuroscience has reached a critical juncture, where scientists can see the potential of memory manipulation to help people suffering from the debilitating effects of PTSD, anxiety, Alzheimer's, addiction, and a host of other neurological and behavioral disorders.

Steve Ramirez has been featured on CNN, NPR, and the BBC and in leading publications such as The New York Times, National Geographic, Wired, Forbes, The Guardian, The Economist, and Nature. An award-winning neuroscientist who has given TED talks on his groundbreaking work on memory manipulation, he is associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University.

Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network.

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