Americans learned to “transplant” human memory
Transplantation has become firmly established in surgical practice. Modern doctors can successfully transplant most organs and tissues. Otherwise, the situation is with the transplantation of completely different components of a person, for example, mind, memory or character. However, a group of scientists from the United States, according to eNeuro magazine, managed to take a step forward in this direction.
Human memory is one of the subjects of the study of modern anatomy. Previously it was believed that memory is the result of the generation of electrical impulses, but the discovery in 2012 of engram neurons, which serve as a kind of chemical information custodians, changed the way scientists think about this brain function. Scientists at the University of California, led by David Gnantsman, succeeded in successfully transplanting RNA from engram neurons from one simple microorganism to another.
During the tests, scientists grew two colonies of poisonous sea slugs. One colony lived a calm life, while representatives of another were regularly shocked. Over time, the slugs from the second colony got used to these executions and began to adapt their behavior to avoid electric shocks.
After that, their RNA was transplanted to slugs from the first group and they immediately began to repeat the behavior model of the second group, fearing electric current and hiding at certain intervals, although electric shocks were not applied to them. Thus, the possibility of a memory transplant with its subsequent perception by another living organism has been proven. It remains only to find out how similar technology can be used for people, and most importantly, for what purpose.
Human memory is one of the subjects of the study of modern anatomy. Previously it was believed that memory is the result of the generation of electrical impulses, but the discovery in 2012 of engram neurons, which serve as a kind of chemical information custodians, changed the way scientists think about this brain function. Scientists at the University of California, led by David Gnantsman, succeeded in successfully transplanting RNA from engram neurons from one simple microorganism to another.
During the tests, scientists grew two colonies of poisonous sea slugs. One colony lived a calm life, while representatives of another were regularly shocked. Over time, the slugs from the second colony got used to these executions and began to adapt their behavior to avoid electric shocks.
After that, their RNA was transplanted to slugs from the first group and they immediately began to repeat the behavior model of the second group, fearing electric current and hiding at certain intervals, although electric shocks were not applied to them. Thus, the possibility of a memory transplant with its subsequent perception by another living organism has been proven. It remains only to find out how similar technology can be used for people, and most importantly, for what purpose.
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