Posted on 11/13/2024 8:13:37 AM PST by Red Badger
A groundbreaking study has found that cells outside the brain may have memory functions, challenging the long-held belief that memory is exclusive to brain cells. Researchers demonstrated that non-brain cells could learn from spaced repetition, activating a “memory gene” similar to brain cells. Research reveals that kidney and nerve tissue cells can learn and form memories in ways similar to neurons.
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Our brains—and specifically, our brain cells—are commonly known to store memories. However, a team of scientists has discovered that cells from other parts of the body also play a role in memory, opening new pathways for understanding how memory functions and creating potential for enhancing learning and treating memory-related conditions.
“Learning and memory are generally associated with brains and brain cells alone, but our study shows that other cells in the body can learn and form memories, too,” explains New York University’s Nikolay V. Kukushkin, the lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Nature Communications.
The research sought to better understand if non-brain cells help with memory by borrowing from a long-established neurological property—the massed-spaced effect—which shows that we tend to retain information better when studied in spaced intervals rather than in a single, intensive session—better known as cramming for a test.
An NYU researcher administers chemical signals to non-neural cells grown in a culture plate. Credit: Nikolay Kukushkin
In the Nature Communications research, the scientists replicated learning over time by studying two types of non-brain human cells in a laboratory (one from nerve tissue and one from kidney tissue) and exposing them to different patterns of chemical signals—just like brain cells are exposed to patterns of neurotransmitters when we learn new information. In response, the non-brain cells turned on a “memory gene”—the same gene that brain cells turn on when they detect a pattern in the information and restructure their connections in order to form memories.
Tracking Memory Gene Activation
To monitor the memory and learning process, the scientists engineered these non-brain cells to make a glowing protein, which indicated when the memory gene was on and when it was off.
The results showed that these cells could determine when the chemical pulses, which imitated bursts of neurotransmitter in the brain, were repeated rather than simply prolonged—just as neurons in our brain can register when we learn with breaks rather than cramming all the material in one sitting. Specifically, when the pulses were delivered in spaced-out intervals, they turned on the “memory gene” more strongly, and for a longer time, than when the same treatment was delivered all at once.
“This reflects the massed-space effect in action,” says Kukushkin, a clinical associate professor of life science at NYU Liberal Studies and a research fellow at NYU’s Center for Neural Science. “It shows that the ability to learn from spaced repetition isn’t unique to brain cells, but, in fact, might be a fundamental property of all cells.”
Non Neural Cells in a Lab
An NYU researcher administers chemical signals to non-neural cells grown in a culture plate. Credit: Nikolay Kukushkin
The researchers add that the findings not only offer new ways to study memory, but also point to potential health-related gains.
“This discovery opens new doors for understanding how memory works and could lead to better ways to enhance learning and treat memory problems,” observes Kukushkin. “At the same time, it suggests that in the future, we will need to treat our body more like the brain—for example, consider what our pancreas remembers about the pattern of our past meals to maintain healthy levels of blood glucose or consider what a cancer cell remembers about the pattern of chemotherapy.”
Reference:
“The massed-spaced learning effect in non-neural human cells”
by:
N. V. Kukushkin, R. E. Carney, T. Tabassum and T. J. Carew, 7 November 2024, Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53922-x
The work was jointly supervised by Kukushkin and Thomas Carew, a professor in NYU’s Center for Neural Science. The study’s authors also included Tasnim Tabassum, an NYU researcher, and Robert Carney, an NYU undergraduate researcher at the time of the study.
This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (R01-MH120300-01A1).
I just wish mine would sleep all night...............😁
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory
Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition, which has been used synonymously with motor learning. When a movement is repeated over time, the brain creates a long-term muscle memory for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed with little to no conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems. Muscle memory is found in many everyday activities that become automatic and improve with practice, such as riding bikes, driving motor vehicles, playing ball sports, typing on keyboards, entering PINs, playing musical instruments,[1] poker,[2] martial arts, swimming,[3] dancing, and drawing.
>>>challenging the long-held belief that memory is exclusive to brain cells<<<
The brain cells thought they had total control, that their science was settled.
As it turns out, “cells outside the brain” are the brains outside the cells.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_outside_the_box
God made us in the image of Himself.
It is no wonder to me that we have the capability of storing memories in every cell of our bodies..................
muscle memory...
Ever remembered a phone number by pretending to hit the keys
My favorite psalm.
I swear fat holds memories.
I gained weight during a particularly stressful time dealing with injuries from Iraq.
As I lost the weight, years later. I was plagued by memories of events that came back very vividly. All the stress returned.
Now, the fat and involuntary recall is gone.
Granted, it could be side effects of the anti-rejection medication.
8675309.............
My mom had vascular dementia, and used to get urinary tract infections frequently those last couple of years.
Your spleen gets no respect.
That makes sense..............Semper Fi....😎
Interesting...
Coincidence? Trauma from the procedure? Or do tissues and organs retain actual memories?
Lots of things are easier to remember if you associate them with music.
Spleen on me,
When you’re not strong,
And I’ll be your friend,
I’ll help you carry on!..............
That is highly likely.
It would make a great horror movie plot!................
It fits with all the new info coming out about the gut/brain connection and that the same neurons in the brain are in the gut.
Which is why this gut health stuff is taking off so quickly.
God quickens the mortal body by His Spirit that dwells within. and that Holy Spirit knows everything about every one of us, what we know, think, will do, have done... and completely congruent with our alleged “free will” can do any and everything God wants via His ability to drive the “human transport vehicle” aka... each one of us.
When God says “ call to remembrance the former days after you were enlightened” that is saying a LOT. What WE cannot remember He can, and will. Maybe this can be done or has been at times... in the lives of some people who battle with Alzheimer’s.
He knows where I left my keys... Hallelujah...
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