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2024-11-11

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Memory is stored in cells throughout the body, not just the brain (www.earth.com)

submitted 1 month ago by HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to c/science@lemmy.world

108 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In this study, the scientists simulated the process of spaced learning by examining two types of non-brain human cells — one from nerve tissue and one from kidney tissue — in a laboratory setting.

These cells were exposed to varying patterns of chemical signals, akin to the exposure of brain cells to neurotransmitter patterns when we learn new information.

The intriguing part? These non-brain cells also switched on a “memory gene” – the same gene that brain cells activate when they detect information patterns and reorganize their connections to form memories.

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[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Read something like that in an old science fiction novel.

Old man's brain is placed in a young woman's body. Her brain was destroyed but most of her memories live on in her body.

[–] VubDapple@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Robert Heinlein, I Will Fear No Evil

"Elderly billionaire Johann Sebastian Bach Smith is being kept alive through medical support and decides to have his brain transplanted into a new body. He advertises an offer of a million dollars for the donation of a body from a brain-dead patient. Smith omits to place any restriction on the sex of the donor, so when his beautiful young female secretary, Eunice Branca, is killed, her body is used—without his knowledge and to the distress of some of those around him."

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

You can tell it's a really old book because they talk about $1 million like it's a lot of money.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I'd read that novel.

Old man hell bent on world domination, but really wants Johnny in math class to ask him to the dance on Friday.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

"I Will Fear No Evil, " Robert Heinlein.

[–] herrvogel@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

One of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels has an exceptionally old character who is so exceptionally old that he's had to turn most of his body into memory storage (sounds weird if you think in terms of computers) to keep remembering things. He stores his sexy memories in his balls.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Don't remember that char, can you refresh my memory (I am fully aware of the irony given the topic under discussion)

[–] herrvogel@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

He's in Hydrogen Sonata. The mcguffin guy who everyone is trying to find and talk to because he's the only person who's old enough to remember some very important thing about the early days of the Culture.

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Reminds me of the guy that got a heart transplant and took up smoking like the original owner of the heart and started dating the original owners ex.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Was that a fictional work or actual patient?

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

From memory it was an actual patient but I wasn't easily able to find it from a quick search.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

I'll take your word for it, because nobody ever lied on the interwebs.

[jk, thnaks for the response]