Jumia Books How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past by Steve Ramirez

How to Change a Memory by neuroscientist Steve Ramirez is a groundbreaking exploration of one of the most provocative frontiers in brain science: the ability to alter human memory. Blending cutting-edge research with personal narrative, Ramirez takes readers deep into the neural mechanisms that encode, store, and retrieve memories—and shows how these processes can be manipulated to transform lives.

As a graduate student at MIT, Ramirez made headlines by successfully implanting false memories in mice. Now, he expands that work to consider the implications for humans: Can we rewrite traumatic memories? Can we enhance positive ones? Can memory modification become a tool for mental health and emotional healing?

Through vivid storytelling and scientific clarity, Ramirez shares:

His own experiences with memory, loss, and recovery

The neuroscience behind memory formation and reconsolidation

Experiments that demonstrate how memories can be turned on, off, or edited

Ethical questions surrounding memory manipulation

The future of therapeutic interventions for PTSD, depression, and anxiety

This book is not just a scientific treatise—it’s a deeply human account of how memory shapes identity, and how altering memory could reshape our emotional landscape. Ramirez’s writing is accessible, engaging, and often poetic, making complex ideas digestible for general readers while offering depth for those in psychology, neuroscience, and mental health.

How to Change a Memory is ideal for readers interested in brain science, emotional resilience, and the philosophical questions of what it means to remember. It’s a bold, hopeful vision of how science might help us heal—not by forgetting, but by transforming the way we remember.