The researchers first conducted an operation to “transplant” memory
Scientists from the University of California in Los Angeles for the first time conducted an operation to “transplant” to the memory from the brain of toxic slugs in the brain of another mollusc. The results of the study changed our view about the nature of memory, the article says may 14 in the journal eNeuro.
Researchers believed that memories are stored not only “inside the synapses (the contact point between two neurons), but in pure chemical form”. To confirm their hypothesis, the scientists conducted an experiment on the California sea hare (Aplysia californica) is a large poisonous slugs.
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Two days later, when the clams have developed a kind of reflex to this procedure, the researchers extracted their body and the nerve was isolated out of RNA and introduced these molecules in the neurons of the first group of slugs.
After injection, RNA was found that clams from the first group shrank and produced the ink in anticipation of a shock, although I have not experienced this procedure. And the second group of molluscs on the contrary got rid of the memories ect.
Thus, scientists have confirmed the hypothesis that at least part of the memory is stored in the form of a particular set of RNA molecules and changes in the DNA shell. “If memories were stored in synapses, then our experiment would not work,” said Glanzman.
Scientists hope that the results of the study will help in the treatment of the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and post-traumatic disorders.