Memories Can Be Injected and Survive Amputation and Metamorphosis

http://nautil.us/blog/memories-can-be-injected-and-survive-amputation-and-metamorphosis

by howsilly • 7 years ago

128 44 7 years ago

cjbprime• 7 years ago

A headline sorely in need of "In Worms" on the end.

Small aside about memory in humans: I am reminded of a story told during a lecture of a transplant recipient receiving a heart transplant and was interviewed after the successful surgery about what they would like to eat now that they had a new heart (previously, was on a really restricted diet due to heart condition).

The person responded with "Kentucky fried chicken" on a whim.

It was later explained that they don't know why they felt compelled to say KFC since they never been to one in their life. Later on, they find information about the donor and how they died (motorcycle accident -- be safe on your bikes please kids). The donor was a pretty husky guy, and loved Kentucky fried chicken.

Now could have this just been sheer coincidence or chance? Most likely. Is this scientifically verifiable? Of course not, not with current means. But for some reason I've always had a strange suspicion that there was more to memory than just storage in our brains, but that they are also somehow part of us as well.

r_singh• 7 years ago

Interesting... any chance you have a link of that lecture or a story on it?

wildduck2• 7 years ago

There are many cases of people who get organ transplant inherit the memory of the donor. I have heard in more than one places or another. A simple search on the web will yield this:

Here is a link: https://www.medicaldaily.com/can-organ-transplant-change-rec...

We still don't know squats about how memory are stored. And cases like that can be a valid argument for memory and consciousness being a non-local phenomenon. Kinda like how client-server model in CS. ;-) . Are our brain just a browser?

wildduck2• 7 years ago

Oh and here is the KFC thing.

https://www.namahjournal.com/doc/Actual/Memory-transference-...

imvetri2• 7 years ago

Reading more and more will never get us anywhere. What can we do with what we know now is worth sharing.

TeMPOraL• 7 years ago

Acquiring memories and personalities through organ transplants is a somewhat known urban legend and a fiction trope, but AFAIK the only thing you can transmit through a transplant that's been verifiably demonstrated is pathogens.

rolltiide• 7 years ago

Pathogens and microbes can influence alot about our bodies

Maybe a “memory” like a neuron based thing isnt what is being transmitted, but instead nearest urges directed by unique sets of microbes found in individuals

RossBencina• 7 years ago

And DNA, in the case of bone marrow transplant:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/us/dna-bone-marrow-transp...

imvetri2• 7 years ago

Thanks for sharing.

We kind of waste our time by verifying with science for new surprises. We live for <60 years, we have to manage our time with something that is impactful. So verifying anything with science is not worth our time (thinking -> googling -> starting threads). Instead, simplify the facts and write it down on paper. Keep accumulating your findings, you will come up with your own more connected theories. Occasionally, prove your theories wrong to build a stronger base knowledge.

My message is just a reply for "Is this scientifically verifiable? Of course not, not with current means"

copperx• 7 years ago

We live for <60 years

What country are you from?

rimliu• 7 years ago

    > We live for <60 years

That's false. And please hold on with "your own theories". We have too much "fun" with antivaxers already.

krageon• 7 years ago

verifying anything with science is not worth our time

You are apparently long, long overdue a revision of a few history books. It should very quickly become self-evident that it is in fact worth our collective time (and probably our individual time too, as it's a real achievement that everyone benefits from) to perform scientific studies.

IIAOPSW• 7 years ago

The most obvious explanation is that they were making a joke by picking the most greasy, unhealthy thing they could think of and had no real desire to go to KFC.

"What are you going to do with your new heart?" "Clog it up just like the last one. duh."

tyri_kai_psomi2• 7 years ago

In this case, the heart defect was congenital, not due to atherosclerosis

yohsii• 7 years ago

as somebody who meditates, i've noticed there are connections between brain and heart in terms of memories. i believe the heart has a big role to play in terms of memories but i can't back it up with anything verifiable.

zby• 7 years ago

My explanation: https://www.gwern.net/Littlewood - the surprising stuff is what spreads on the internet. Anecdotal information is becoming more and more useless - the only recourse is statistics.

tiku• 7 years ago

I thought of the cells working as a raid system, Perhaps the flow of energy also stores and retrieves data to "refresh" the brain cells..

jojo20002• 7 years ago

The old vision (brain = neurons => memories, rest of the body = organs which execute single or multiple functions, synchronized by the brain) is slowly fading away.

We have a lot of active neurons in the digestive system, which is in fact a second brain.

Same can be said for the heart which contains an autonomous neuronal system to control the cardiac function independently if need be.

Notions of distributed systems apply : redundancy, parallelism, coordinated autonomous systems, synchronization.

So why wouldn't memory storage be distributed too ?

Why wouldn't some memories stored in organs be retained after transplantation ?

pvaldes• 7 years ago

The idea has some merit, but lots and lot of trasplants are done each year since decades. Nobody has exit the hospital suddenly turning on a pianist or an expert plumber after a hand transplant. And nobody suddenly forgot the knowledge to do some specialized thing, or recognize a beloved one, after losing an arm or a leg.

The kentucky fried thing (assuming that is a true history and not a fake new) could have a few simpler explanations like doctors talking about the donor in the pre or postoperatory phase while the patient was half-awake

ranDOMscripts• 7 years ago

This is colloquially referred to as having a "gut feeling".

nkrisc• 7 years ago

Coincidence sure seems like the simplest explanation. I'm sure the donor liked a great many things other than KFC, and I'm sure enjoyment of KFC is pretty common in the general population, who make up donors. Now if it was something extremely specific or rare, I'd pay a little more attention to it.

rbobby• 7 years ago

Never had KFC before? That seems extremely unlikely.

zappo29382• 7 years ago

If we are empathetic, capable of being aware of other people's feelings, it is reasonable that the memories attached to awareness exist not isolated in the individual but across people.

wizzwizz4• 7 years ago

Not really; memories remain even when you go to space behind the moon alone.

alpaca128• 7 years ago

You should look up mirror neurons. Aside from those we definitely do not know other people's feelings, though. I think that's obvious from the amount of conflict coming from this exact reason.

zappo29382• 7 years ago

Being empathetic doesn't imply also being compassionate. Maybe we vie for power so much exactly because we do have a deep awareness of other people's feelings and people who wield power can say, "If I'm not happy, nobody is happy." All this conflict comes from not having to depend on people in power for our happiness.

GarvielLoken• 7 years ago

Age old wisdom. That's why you always eat the heart of your enemies, so you can grow in power.

plutonorm• 7 years ago

Aside from hinting at wonderful new science, the strongest resonance I get from this story is hubris.

How proud and how wrong we can be. To disregard and minimise this research because it does not fit neatly within existing paradigms, is a crime. Hundreds of millions of dollars should be being poured into this research, the implications for our understanding of fundamental biology are profound.

BuildTheRobots2• 7 years ago

I remember hearing as a kid that worms cut in half would regenerate into two worms however as an adult I'm sure I was taught this isn't actually the case at all.

After a quick bit of googling, it seems that earthworms can re-grow their tail (if cut far enough down), but the other end doesn't re-grow. Flat-Worms, however are capable of entirely re-growing heads and tails from tiny pieces.

https://www.livescience.com/38405-how-flatworms-regrow-their...

keanebean86• 7 years ago

Some human children have regrown finger tips: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/06/10/1903854...

fao_• 7 years ago

    > I remember hearing as a kid that worms cut in half would 
    > regenerate into two worms however as an adult I'm sure I 
    > was taught this isn't actually the case at all.

Do you mean that you're sure that you weren't taught it, or that you're sure that it isn't the case in reality. Because the latter is easily answered by reading the article in question:

    > In an early experiment, McConnell trained the worms à la
    > Pavlov by pairing an electric shock with flashing lights. 
    > Eventually, the worms recoiled to the light alone. Then 
    > something interesting happened when he cut the worms in 
    > half. The head of one half of the worm grew a tail and, 
    > understandably, retained the memory of its training.
    > Surprisingly, however, the tail, which grew a head and a 
    > brain, also retained the memory of its training. If a 
    > headless worm can regrow a memory, then where is the memory 
    > stored, McConnell wondered. And, if a memory can 
    > regenerate, could he transfer it?

BuildTheRobots2• 7 years ago

I meant I was sure that when I became an adult I was taught that worms regrowing was an urban myth. The fact the scientist in the article was regrowing them made me go and check and it turns out to be something that changes with different variants, rather than a blanket worm rule either way.

saalweachter• 7 years ago

Though now discredited, you'll occasionally see McConnell's idea of RNA-based memory transfer in old science fiction, in particular _A World Out of Time_ by Larry Niven.

Memories Can Be Injected and Survive Amputation and Metamorphosis

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