Theoretical reflections and analytical observations on memory and prediction, linking these concepts to the role of the cerebellum in higher cognition.

What is memory? What is memory for? Where is memory in the brain? Although memory is probably the most studied function in cognition, these fundamental questions remain challenging. We can try to answer the question of memory's purpose by defining the function of memory as remembering the past. And yet this definition is not consistent with the many errors that characterize our memory, or with the phylogenetic and ontogenetic origin of memory. In this book, Tomaso Vecchi and Daniele Gatti argue that the purpose of memory is not to remember the past but to predict the future.

Tomaso Vecchi is Professor of Cognitive Psychology, Head of the Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, and Vice-Rector at the University of Pavia, Italy. He also is Head of the Neurostimulation Lab at the National Neurological Institute (IRCCS) Mondino, Italy. Daniele Gatti is a Research Fellow at the University of Pavia.