Is that thought one that is generally shared for those working in the field of memory or more something that is new/cutting edge? It’s a very interesting statement so if you have some pointers to a (not too difficult) a paper on how that works, or just had the time to write something up, I for one would be interested and greatful.
I have no idea, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s a mainstream position.
My thinking is that long-term memory requires long-term preservation of information, and evolution “prefers” to repurpose things rather than starting from scratch. And what do you know, there’s this robust and effective infrastructure for storing and replicating information just sitting there in the middle of each neuron!
The main problem is writing new information. But apparently, there’s a protein evolved from a retrotransposon (those things which viruses use to insert their own RNA into their host’s DNA) which is important to long term memory!
And I’ve since learned of an experiment with snails which also suggests this possibility. Based on that article, it looks like this is maybe a relatively new line of thinking.
It’s good news for cryonics if this is the primary way long term memories are stored, since we “freeze” sperm and eggs all the time, and they still work.
I find this rather exciting—and clearly the cryonics implications are positive. But beyond that, and yes, this is really scifi down the road thinking here, the implications for education/learning and treatment of things like PTSD seems huge. Assuming we can figure out how to control these. Of course I’m ignoring some of the real down sides like manipulation of memory for bad reasons or an Orwellean application. I am not sure those types of risks at that large in most open societies.
DNA is discussed as one possible storage mechanism in the context of epigenetic alterations to neurons. See the section by Andrii Rudenko and Li-Huei Tsai.
Thanks. Just took a quick glance as the abstract but looks interesting. Will have something to read while waiting at the airport for a flight tomorrow.
Is that thought one that is generally shared for those working in the field of memory or more something that is new/cutting edge? It’s a very interesting statement so if you have some pointers to a (not too difficult) a paper on how that works, or just had the time to write something up, I for one would be interested and greatful.
I have no idea, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s a mainstream position.
My thinking is that long-term memory requires long-term preservation of information, and evolution “prefers” to repurpose things rather than starting from scratch. And what do you know, there’s this robust and effective infrastructure for storing and replicating information just sitting there in the middle of each neuron!
The main problem is writing new information. But apparently, there’s a protein evolved from a retrotransposon (those things which viruses use to insert their own RNA into their host’s DNA) which is important to long term memory!
And I’ve since learned of an experiment with snails which also suggests this possibility. Based on that article, it looks like this is maybe a relatively new line of thinking.
It’s good news for cryonics if this is the primary way long term memories are stored, since we “freeze” sperm and eggs all the time, and they still work.
I find this rather exciting—and clearly the cryonics implications are positive. But beyond that, and yes, this is really scifi down the road thinking here, the implications for education/learning and treatment of things like PTSD seems huge. Assuming we can figure out how to control these. Of course I’m ignoring some of the real down sides like manipulation of memory for bad reasons or an Orwellean application. I am not sure those types of risks at that large in most open societies.
I can’t speak for Adele, but here is one somewhat recent article by neuroscientists discussing memory storage mechanisms: https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-016-0261-6
DNA is discussed as one possible storage mechanism in the context of epigenetic alterations to neurons. See the section by Andrii Rudenko and Li-Huei Tsai.
Thanks. Just took a quick glance as the abstract but looks interesting. Will have something to read while waiting at the airport for a flight tomorrow.