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).
yup... quickening our mortal bodies by his Spirit which formed us in our mothers womb.
One year I got seriously messed up by Yellow Jackets. For about 3 years after, I could tell when I was near a nest because the places I was stung the worst would start to burn and itch. When I got that feeling I would just back off and would eventually spot the yellow jackets coming/going to their hole.
I guess these guys either never heard of muscle memory or were just not letting it get in the way of their grant money.
I guess these guys either never heard of muscle memory or were just not letting it get in the way of their grant money.
Thanks Red Badger. This may somehow explain why so many Demwits have their heads up their ***es.
Not the same
The military has known this since forever. That’s why they train, train and train some more.
Usually this is called muscle memory.
that why people who play sports repeat moves over and over again.
eventually the muscles know where to go by themselves.
the brain does not have to say hand do this or feet do that. They just know where to go by themselves given the situation.
TeeHee. Stone Age science.
I can’t look at that and just say out the numbers.
I have to sing “ait six seven five three oooo niyinnnne”!
“There has been numerous reports over the years of people receiving various organ transplants suddenly developing memories of events they never experienced, different tastes in food, sometimes minor foreign language skills. “
I first read about this in a Wall Street Journal article around 20 years ago. A young woman received a heart transplant from a young man who died in a motorcycle accident. The parents of the young man visited the transplant recipient and she could sing songs that their son had composed. The source of this anecdote was not the National Inquirer.
Thanks
BKMK
I remember that story. Remarkable.
When my son was going into kindergarten, we taught him a song to remember his address, in case of emergency. There was a problem though. When they asked him at school, he didn’t know it, because he didn’t want to sing it in front of other people. It eventually turned out ok, because then we knew we had to teach him another way. He will never forget that address though. Permanently stuck.
I thought muscle memory already had a name—kinesthetic memory. My late husband who died of Alzheimer’s drove our car until 6 months before his death. For a number of years I acted as copilot telling hime when to turn right at the next corner, or to move to the left lane for a left at the next corner. He could only remember for 15 seconds in that last year, but could keep on doing a simple job that was repetitive, like rake leaves, or saw a board with a hand saw. We built a cabin together. I took measurements, started a cut in a 2 x 8 and asked him to finish cutting it. He finally stopped driving when he failed his test to renew his driver’s license at 74, The doctor showed him a green light and asked for a verbal answer as to what to do. He could not say the word STOP, although if driving he would have stopped. So finally I had to get my driver’s license. Fortunately I found a teacher who allowed him to sit in the back seat while I was doing my driving lessons. Finding a “baby” sitter for him would have been extremely difficult.
. Finding a “baby” sitter for him would have been extremely difficult.
Reminded me of my dad still reaching for his pack of smokes when he had stopped years before.
So the “little head” doing the thinking is true?
For centuries.................
Millions of fools took dangerous, untested injections that modified their DNA. So NOW, what are they a complete copy of?
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