this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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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.

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[–] Shardikprime@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah last week people on Lemmy were arguing that memory is the simplest thing to exist EVER and that musk's neuralink meant we had matrix reloaded already at the corner

The hubris never ceases to amaze me

[–] Yewb@lemmy.world 13 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Musk is a snake oil salesman that buys other people's ideas and pays smart people to make it, then steals all the profits for himself.

Modern day Thomas Edison.

[–] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Except he hasn't electrocuted a live elephant to make a point. Yet.

[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

In related news:

The complications include bloody diarrhea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema, a condition colloquially known as “brain swelling.”

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

Kwisatz Haderach here we come

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 12 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] mambabasa@slrpnk.net 12 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It's more than that. People who have had heart transplants can inherit memories and personality traits from the donor. Cells remember more than they let on and can pass these memories to the recipient.

See this study. I think it's safe to say we have some empirical evidence for this. In the linked study, there's a kid who received a heart from another kid who died trying to retrieve a power ranger and somehow the donor knew that without anyone telling him. Another kid received a heart from a kid who drowned and he became afraid of water.

[–] Luccus@feddit.org 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

If I read the cited sources and they turn out to be a bunch of untested hypotheses based on poorly conducted studies… I'll be mad.

Just skimming through it makes a bad first impression.

…I'm not even trying to be derisive. I'm just really angry at how much "there's a study" has become "there's proof". And I shouldn't even be mad because communicating that difference should be the authors' job.

If you value your time, don't read any further because I'm just going to vent a little:


So I lack any formal education (apart from ficking school). The best thing I can say about myself is that I can hold and mostly understand a conversation with people who are actually educated in their field.

But some studies are bad. Like bad-bad. So bad that I think, most people who can read should be able to recognize their flaws if they actually read them.

For example:

I read a study a while back about genetic (as opposed to learned) prepositions of monkeys in relation to their biological sex and preference for toys.

The methodology was bad, but here's the shittiest part imo: At the end of the study, the researchers found that of the 130 or so monkeys, only about half showed any preference for any kind toy. So the researchers excluded the unbiased monkeys from the test. Of the remaining monkeys, still only the males showed any preference for the "male" toys. So the females were also excluded. In the end, only 30 monkeys actually counted, because they showed the hypothesized difference in their preferences. And even those only showed a delta of 10-30% in the time they spent with the toys.

The study should have concluded that most monkeys don't give a shit if a toy has wheels (like a shopping cart, which apparently makes it a "male" toy) or if it's soft, like a plush (which is "female" because boys would never touch a plushy, of course).

Instead, they found that their hypothesis turned out to be correct, after disregarding anything that invalidated their hypothesis.

Where did I get this study from? From social media, of course. Where a bunch of meat heads "proved" that all women genetically want to be tradwives and trans people don't exist or some shit.

Fuck everything about this.

[–] ValenThyme@reddthat.com 25 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 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.

[–] Matty_r@programming.dev 17 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Its like the blockchain for you body.

[–] PainInTheAES@lemmy.world 16 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Brickhead92@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

Identifier of ownership

[–] KaTaRaNaGa@lemmy.world 15 points 15 hours ago

“The Body Keeps the Score”

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Isn't this literally the plot to the Reanimator?

[–] SlothMama@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

Well, it's certainly the plot of Assassin's Creed

[–] _bac@lemmy.world 24 points 22 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@lemmy.ca 29 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Metostopholes@midwest.social 179 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Memory is stored in the balls

[–] phx@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

Well some species do potentially have "genetic memories" so maybe some stuff actually could be

[–] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 5 points 16 hours ago

Still better that "pee is stored in the brain"

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 49 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (14 children)

Just to recap, sperm, pee, microplastics, and memories are stored in the balls? Am I missing anything? I can’t remember. Maybe my balls are too full of microplastics to recall.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 36 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
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[–] ABCDE@lemmy.world 72 points 1 day ago (4 children)
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[–] BigTrout75@lemmy.world 14 points 23 hours ago

"Muscle memory" is real.

[–] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Xeroxchasechase@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

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[–] Liome@pawb.social 40 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Do we need to format our kidneys before becoming a donor now?

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