There are many stories on how the receiver of a transplant has felt themselves being "changed", sometimes in ways that would remind people of the donor.
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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MDPI is like the lowest quality slop journal. Like anything gets peer reviewed in that thing.
Is there an element of literality to the term "muscle memory"?
Yes, insofar as many reflexive actions, enervation and fiber recruitment thresholds respond to training, such that they “remember“ actions you have performed many times before. There are many clusters of nerves throughout the body called ganglia that are responsible for low-latency control of various functions that would entail too much delay when controlled entirely by the brain.
Generally, the minimum input-process-activation turnaround time of the brain is about 4 hz (240-250 ms) which is too slow for many applications of motor function. But the “co-processing” allowed by the extended nervous system enables the body to, with practice, execute far more rapid and complex action sequences in response to local stimuli. Some actions can be triggered and completed before a signal even makes it to the brain.
Generally, the minimum input-process-activation turnaround time of the brain is about 4 hz (240-250 ms) which is too slow for many motor functions. But the “co-processing” allowed by the extended nervous system enables the body to, with practice, execute far more rapid and complex action sequences in response to local stimuli. Some actions can even be triggered and completed before a signal makes it to the brain.
Thank you. For some reason it makes me happy to know that.
Read something like that in an old science fiction novel.
Old man's brain is placed in a young woman's body. Her brain was destroyed but most of her memories live on in her body.
Robert Heinlein, I Will Fear No Evil
"Elderly billionaire Johann Sebastian Bach Smith is being kept alive through medical support and decides to have his brain transplanted into a new body. He advertises an offer of a million dollars for the donation of a body from a brain-dead patient. Smith omits to place any restriction on the sex of the donor, so when his beautiful young female secretary, Eunice Branca, is killed, her body is used—without his knowledge and to the distress of some of those around him."
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I'd read that novel.
Old man hell bent on world domination, but really wants Johnny in math class to ask him to the dance on Friday.
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Reminds me of the guy that got a heart transplant and took up smoking like the original owner of the heart and started dating the original owners ex.
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One of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels has an exceptionally old character who is so exceptionally old that he's had to turn most of his body into memory storage (sounds weird if you think in terms of computers) to keep remembering things. He stores his sexy memories in his balls.
Don't remember that char, can you refresh my memory (I am fully aware of the irony given the topic under discussion)
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It seem like they're just saying kidneys remember kidney stuff, pancreases just remember pancreas stuff, etc etc.
It's not like your kidney remembers Aunt Jean has a mole on her nose.
There is another body of research that deals with a person's behavior can be heavily influence by endocrine actions. Organs can affect current endocrine responses. So there is a suggestion here that your kidney may not remember the Aunt Jean has a mole, it may remember why it releases certain hormones which can effect how you behave.
Yeah, but if you get someone else's kidney, it "remembers" how that body worked.
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So hold on a minute - does this mean there might be some truth to the whole “eat your fallen enemy to gain experience” thing? That’s wild.
naw. its more like the nerve pathways through the body also have their own node-weighting long before they get to the brain. those are used in process sometimes allowing for memory-like function
its still a generated system that you cant just eat
Are you sure I can't eat it? We should test this... for science.
Are you sure I can’t eat it? We should test this… for science.
The question then being: would it still be considered science if it's not eaten raw but cooked and, say, accompanied with some wine?
Such as a nice chianti?
And fava beans.
Closer to that whole organ transplant affecting someone's personality I guess
Eating a dictionary to improve your vocabulary would be equally effective to that theory, and for many of the same reasons. (As far as information transfer is concerned)
No, because you're eating the flesh, so you're digesting it.
This is more relevant to organ transplants.
Apparently, it's a known phenomenon that some organ transplant recipients seem to inherit some traits and even memories of organ donors.
Wow, these examples are so cool.
Food Preferences:
- developed aversion to meat after receiving a heart from a vegetarian donor.
- experienced nausea after meals post-transplant from a donor with irregular eating habits.
- developed a taste for green peppers and chicken nuggets, foods favored by her donor.
Musical Preferences:
- began enjoying loud music post-transplant.
- developed a love for music after receiving a heart from a musician.
- started appreciating classical music, previously disliked, after transplant.
Sexual Preferences:
- Male recipient of a heart from a lesbian artist experienced heightened desire toward women.
- Lesbian recipient of a heterosexual woman's heart found attraction to men.
Other Preferences and Aversions:
- Landscape artist's heart recipient developed interest in art.
- Dancer's heart recipient shifted color preferences to cooler tones.
- Fear of water developed post-transplant from drowning victim.
Memories:
- describes sudden unusual tastes accompanied by thoughts about their donor's identity and life experiences.
- feels tactile sensations corresponding to the impact of the car accident that killed their donor.
- experiencing flashes of light and heat resembling the trauma suffered by their donor, who was shot in the face.
- describes a vivid dream of reckless driving, mirroring the circumstances of their donor's fatal motorcycle accident.
Some recipients even experience dreams or memories aligning with their donor's identity, such as a woman envisioning a young man named Tim during a dream and later discovering her donor's name as Tim Lamirande
Unfortunately, though, I don't see any mention of how certain they were that the recipients didn't learn these things before experiencing them
I was wondering if there is a link between cellular memory and how trauma is encoded into DNA?
I suppose that explains survival instinct
I wonder if that contributes to "muscle memory".
No, "muscle memory" is the nickname for practiced motions.
I know it is a nickname, I am wondering if this could contribute.
Maybe in the sense that memories are not required to be in the brain to - have an output?
As if haven't know for a century that immune system has the ability to both form memories and problem solve, that rivals the brain. The body being able to adapt to external stimuli isn't anything groundbreaking.