In this study, the scientists simulated the process of spaced learning by examining two types of non-brain human cells — one from nerve tissue and one from kidney tissue — in a laboratory setting.

These cells were exposed to varying patterns of chemical signals, akin to the exposure of brain cells to neurotransmitter patterns when we learn new information.

The intriguing part? These non-brain cells also switched on a “memory gene” – the same gene that brain cells activate when they detect information patterns and reorganize their connections to form memories.

  • @[email protected]
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    8 hours ago

    fascinating, this concept is a core to the theravadan buddhist practice of vipassana meditation, which is supposed to be what the buddha himself actually taught in his wandering classroom. I always took that bit with a grain of salt assuming it was just an old misunderstanding of what’s going on but the kind of non-thought memories appears to be exactly what is described.

    it’s called Vasana and it’s said to be like ‘perfume lingering in cloth’, the residual karma from our actions that shapes our future and influences automatic actions and preferences. Trauma is said to be stored in the body as well as Sankhara.

    I have always viewed vipassana as mental martial arts more than religion, and brushed off all the reincarnation and other inexplicable stuff. fascinating to hear scientists confirming what philosophers came up with thousands of years ago.

  • @[email protected]
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    14 hours ago

    Isn’t the title misleading? A cell switching on the same gen neurons use to connect, if exposed to substance used to transmit information, doesn’t mean it stores or transmits any memories. It seems it doesn’t even do anything more, like forming dendrites or “answering” chemically.

    Guess that’s just a side-effect of how the gen is exposed.

  • @[email protected]
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    27 hours ago

    Is this the stuff responsible for organ donation receivers picking up traits of the donor?

    • @[email protected]
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      38 minutes ago

      Likely not that simple as there would be other factors at play, but good way of thinking. I’m no geneticist but that sounds like it may be a contributing factor, though memory in this case would be functional rather than personality-based.

  • @[email protected]
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    1914 hours ago

    Its interestng, but kidney cells are not exposed to patterns of neurotransmiters like nerve cells are. Cells can be reprogramed to be stem cells as well with the right pattern od signals but that does not mean that it really happens in the body.

  • Adderbox76
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    2916 hours ago

    Not to be a debbie downer here, but it’s important to keep in mind that unless expressly stated otherwise, so-called discoveries that are only published in out-of-the-way (ie. not respected scientific journals) have usually not been peer reviewed or had their results replicated, which is the entire point of the scientific method.

    • Endymion_Mallorn
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      2721 hours ago

      Technically, a handgun also kills cancer in vivo. The problem is the cost to the host body.

      • bizarroland
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        1219 hours ago

        Okay but what you’re saying is if I hired a good enough marksman to shoot the cancer out of my body without killing me then that’s a good thing right?

        I mean, that’s basically what we do with gamma radiation and chemotherapy, just a little bit more ballistic, right?

          • Liz
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            57 hours ago

            Chemo only applies if it’s doped with a radionuclide, otherwise it’s just regular poison.

  • HubertManne
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    2920 hours ago

    Its not the same memory as your brain. your life story is not in your non nerve cells. they have memory the same as yeast has memory but everyone is aware of how we have muscle memory in reptitive tasks.

    • @[email protected]
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      1519 hours ago

      I think muscle memory is just a phrase, but the training that makes and embed the “muscle memory” is essentially nural

      • HubertManne
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        718 hours ago

        yeah sorry I still feel that is neural just not all the way to the brain. I guess what I was trying to say if the article is not that cells hold your memory but that they hold their type of memories is a similar way.

  • Riskable
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    414 hours ago

    Kind of like how there’s taste buds in our lungs.

    • @[email protected]
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      1720 hours ago

      MDPI is like the lowest quality slop journal. Like anything gets peer reviewed in that thing.