You shouldn't be completely dismissive of this. It was replicated up as high as cats (trooly rooly), but the effects were never really big. Just recently they've found there are a few hundred new neurons appearing in the human brain every day (maybe via the diet;)): it's been suggested they might represent laying down of new memories. So it can definitely be used as a scientific fiction to explain how eating your enemies' or relatives' brains works after all.
WRT SF antecedents, Damon Knight has a giant amoeba with a similar habit to the alzabo. Riffing on race memory, Greg Bear has DNA, (or was it microtubule based computers?), storing all one's ancestors' experiences in
Blood Music.
David Duffy.