{"id":16339,"date":"2018-06-23T14:52:57","date_gmt":"2018-06-23T19:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=16339"},"modified":"2018-06-23T14:52:57","modified_gmt":"2018-06-23T19:52:57","slug":"the-physicality-of-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2018\/06\/23\/the-physicality-of-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Physicality Of Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

D-brief<\/strong><\/em>‘s Lacy Schley notes<\/a> an interesting experiment in memory in sea slugs. The researchers trained some sea slugs to react in a certain way to shocks, then …<\/p>\n

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RNA representation. Source: Wikipedia<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The researchers then extracted ribonucleic acid (RNA) \u2014 the cellular messenger that carries out the genetic instructions of DNA \u2014 from the nervous systems of both the shock and non-shock groups. They took this RNA and injected it into a third set of slugs that hadn\u2019t had to deal with any shocks or taps. Seven of these slugs got the shock group\u2019s RNA, seven got the non-shock-group\u2019s RNA.<\/p>\n

Next, the team tapped these RNA-injected slugs on their tails. Those that had received the shock group\u2019s RNA responded almost exactly like the shock group: They recoiled for about 40 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was as though we transferred the memory,\u201d [team lead David] Glanzman said in a press release.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s fascinating, but raises the complicated question of kinds of memory<\/em>. Why? Schley notes Glanzman’s findings are at odds with most theories and suppositions about memory:<\/p>\n

Most neuroscientists would agree that memory, particularly long-term memory, is something that lives in the synapse \u2014 the gap between neurons. But this study, combined with Glanzman\u2019s previous work<\/a>, suggests the nucleus, where RNA carries out its DNA transcribing, could be the key to decoding how memories are stored.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s an implicit suggestion that all memories work on the same mechanism. But what if they don’t? This memory theory discussion needn’t be an exclusive or situation, but possibly parallel mechanisms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D-brief‘s Lacy Schley notes an interesting experiment in memory in sea slugs. The researchers trained some sea slugs to react in a certain way to shocks, then … The researchers then extracted ribonucleic acid (RNA) \u2014 the cellular messenger that carries out the genetic instructions of DNA \u2014 from the \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16341,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16339\/revisions\/16341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}