Forget What You Know : Memory Isn’t Just In Your Head, It’s Everywhere In Your Body

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We've always been told that memory is something the brain handles alone, tucked away in the folds of our minds. But what if everything we thought we knew about memory is wrong? New research is flipping the script, revealing that memory isn't just stored in your brain it's stored in cells throughout your body. Forget what you know; memory is far more widespread than you think, let's find out more.

Photo Credit: Image is AI-generated

About Memory

First things first, what is memory? It is like your brain's filing system. When you experience something new, your brain turns it into patterns of activity and stores them in different areas depending on what type of information it is. For example, visuals are stored in parts that process images, while facts go to areas for logic and language.

When you need to recall something, your brain searches for the relevant pattern, just like finding a file on your computer. But sometimes memories can be a bit fuzzy or hard to access, especially if you haven't thought about them in a while. Also, your memory can change over time as you recall it, adding new information or emotions. Things like sleep, stress, and diet also play a role in how well your memory works.

The Role Of Body Cells In Memory Formation

Memory isn't just something your brain does, other cells in your body can help too. A study led by Nikolay V. Kukushkin, a clinical associate professor of life science at NYU Liberal Studies and a research fellow at NYU's Center for Neural Science shows that non-brain cells can also learn and form memories.

The study focused on the massed-space effect, which says we remember things better when we study in smaller parts over time instead of cramming everything at once. It's like trying to remember a song. If you learn it little by little, it's easier to remember than if you try to do it all at once.

Exploring The Memory In Brain Cells

In this study, scientists looked at two types of non-brain cells, one from nerve tissue and one from kidney tissue. To see if they could learn and form memories, they exposed these cells to different chemical signals, similar to how brain cells respond to neurotransmitters when we learn something new.

What's interesting is that these non-brain cells also turned on a "memory gene," the same gene brain cells used to store information and make new connections. To track this, the scientists cleverly engineered the cells to produce a glowing protein, which showed whether the memory gene was active or not.

Incredible Results Of The Study

The cells could tell when the chemical signals were repeated at intervals, instead of just being constant, much like how our brains work better when we study in short bursts rather than cramming everything at once.

When the signals were spaced out, the "memory gene" in the cells was activated more strongly and for a longer time, showing the massed-space effect in action.

"This reflects the massed-space effect in action," said Prof. Kukushkin. "It shows that the ability to learn from spaced repetition isn't unique to brain cells, but, in fact, might be a fundamental property of all cells," he added.

Photo Credit: Image is AI-generated

For a long time, we believed memory and learning were all about the brain. But this groundbreaking study shows that other cells in the body, not just brain cells, also play a role in memory. This opens up new ways to think about how memory works and could lead to better treatments for memory issues.

Kukushkin points out that in the future, we may need to consider how different parts of our body "remember" things, like how our pancreas tracks past meals to manage blood sugar or how cancer cells remember chemotherapy patterns.

As we dive deeper into this exciting research, the big question is how it will change our approach to memory and learning. The future holds many possibilities.