this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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Science Memes

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Controversy

Memory transfer was a biological process proposed by James V. McConnell and others in the 1960s. Memory transfer proposes a chemical basis for memory termed memory RNA which can be passed down through flesh instead of an intact nervous system. Since RNA encodes information[1] living cells produce and modify RNA in reaction to external events, it might also be used in neurons to record stimuli.[2][3][4] This explained the results of McConnell's experiments in which planarians retained memory of acquired information after regeneration. Memory transfer through memory RNA is not currently a well-accepted explanation and McConnell's experiments proved to be largely irreproducible.[5]

In McConnell's experiments, he classically conditioned planarians to contract their bodies upon exposure to light by pairing it with an electric shock.[6][5] The planarians retained this acquired information after being sliced and regenerated, even after multiple slicings to produce a planarian where none of the original trained planarian was present.[5] The same held true after the planarians were ground up and fed to untrained cannibalistic planarians, usually Dugesia dorotocephala.[5][7] As the nervous system was fragmented but the nucleic acids were not, this seemed to indicate the existence of memory RNA[5] but it was later suggested that only sensitization was transferred,[6] or that no transfer occurred and the effect was due to stress hormones in the donor or pheromone trails left on dirty lab glass.[2] However, other experiments seem to support the original findings in that some memories may be stored outside the brain.[1][8][9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_transfer

Current Science

https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/216/20/3799/11714/An-automated-training-paradigm-reveals-long-term

Planarian flatworms are a popular system for research into the molecular mechanisms that enable these complex organisms to regenerate their entire body, including the brain. Classical data suggest that they may also be capable of long-term memory. Thus, the planarian system may offer the unique opportunity to study brain regeneration and memory in the same animal. To establish a system for the investigation of the dynamics of memory in a regenerating brain, we developed a computerized training and testing paradigm that avoided the many issues that confounded previous, manual attempts to train planarians. We then used this new system to train flatworms in an environmental familiarization protocol. We show that worms exhibit environmental familiarization, and that this memory persists for at least 14 days – long enough for the brain to regenerate. We further show that trained, decapitated planarians exhibit evidence of memory retrieval in a savings paradigm after regenerating a new head. Our work establishes a foundation for objective, high-throughput assays in this molecularly tractable model system that will shed light on the fundamental interface between body patterning and stored memories. We propose planarians as key emerging model species for mechanistic investigations of the encoding of specific memories in biological tissues. Moreover, this system is lik ely to have important implications for the biomedicine of stem-cell-derived treatments of degenerative brain disorders in human adults.

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[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 74 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Is this how Assassin's Creed works

[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 44 points 5 months ago

We are all leeches in gods blender

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 15 points 5 months ago

I totally have memories of my ancestors being absolute badasses and influencing nearly all of human history. Put me in the machine and I'll show you the way to the ark of the covenant so you can foolishly open it and melt your face.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Goddamn that's so cool. Every single thing I read about Warhammer 40k makes me think that I would absolutely love this shit. It's just so... daunting. I wouldn't even know where to start in order to understand the lore.

I have to resist the urge to jump down a rabbit hole after reading this:

The Omophagea, also called the Remembrancer, is the 8th of the 19 genetically-engineered gene-seed organs that are implanted into a Space Marine Neophyte to produce a new superhuman Astartes.

Now I want to know what the other 18 are...

It allows the Astartes to gain part of an individual person's or creature's memory by eating its flesh.

Metal af

[–] Yorick@sh.itjust.works 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The best way I've discovered 40k lore beyond hearing from a friend and some meme is Luetin09, which has a great narrator voice, consider his channel a huge audio library of alleged facts and stories.

How to make a space Marines: https://youtu.be/whtHtyAy0Wo?si=FdpfykLdVV4aK8-4

Also, I heavily recommend Arbitor Ian as he has both a nice presentation style, and also talks about the meta aspects (like how things evolved in the 40 years of 40K lore changing)

The timeline of 40k in 20mn: https://youtu.be/05YRMHWtv1Y?si=xnoLgKkKAQgRwEsX

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Siiiiick. Gonna save this for later. Thanks!

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 68 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I vote that we test whether this works with billionaires too.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 33 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It does! If you teach one billionaire a lesson about the power of the working class, blend them and feed them to another billionaire, the other billionaire will have learned the same lesson.

[–] leisesprecher@feddit.org 8 points 5 months ago

Follow up question: do you need to feed one blended billionaire to one unblended billionaire, or would it be sufficient to feed just a certain percentage?

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Well, they are parasitic, after all.

[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That is an insult to parasites.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 7 points 5 months ago

Exactly. Even most parasites have an ecological function.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 46 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I remember reading that caterpillars can retain information like this when they metamorphose, during which they basically dissolve into a biological slush before becoming butterflies.

[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 34 points 5 months ago (2 children)

A lot of the structures are already there and the common conception of turning completely into goo and then reassembling isn’t correct.

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 23 points 5 months ago

It couldn't be just something easy, like turning into goo and back to solid again. No, it has to be something that makes the body horror in The Thing look like nothing but a scratch.

[–] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 months ago

It's mostly correct. The only remaining structures are the imaginal discs, which can each be as few as 50 cells. There is also a link to some awesome pictures in there.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 20 points 5 months ago

So does this mean we can make a Kwisatz Haderach or not?

[–] cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Is that real this chemical memory?

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 42 points 5 months ago (2 children)

McConnell's experiments proved to be largely irreproducible.

Apparently not so much.

[–] FantasmaNaCasca@lemmy.world 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"(...)However, other experiments seem to support the original findings in that some memories may be stored outside the brain.[1][8][9]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_transfer

[–] Qwazpoi@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago

The memory is stored in the balls?

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 5 months ago

Got a link for a debunked tag?

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I added some more context to the body. :)

[–] Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago

Apparently, if that context in the body is eaten, it will be remembered by the head

[–] mozzribo@leminal.space -5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Of course not. Why do you rely on others to tell you this, though? You could have looked it up.

[–] AntiOutsideAktion@hexbear.net 9 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Because asking someone who appears knowledgeable is a thousand times faster than sifting through the shit you have to filter every time you 'look something up' in today's world

[–] keepcarrot@hexbear.net 3 points 5 months ago

Or ever, most people retain info better having positive social engagement with someone interested in the topic than going to sci-hub (or at least being told to do their own research and then not doing it, which is likely the case).

Truly a mystery why people prefer socialising over homework

[–] mozzribo@leminal.space 1 points 5 months ago

It is true then, just as the OP implies.

[–] big_fat_fluffy@leminal.space 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If we could do emotional memory transfer then we wouldn't need movies anymore.

Movies are an indirect way of evoking emotions.

[–] ogler@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

damn hopefully someday we can just cut out the whole experience of watching a movie and just drink a smoothie that makes us melancholy. save a ton of time for sitting on the couch blankly staring at the leech blender we replaced the TV with

[–] felsiq@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 months ago

Truly the efficiency capitalism strives to reach

[–] johny@feddit.org 7 points 5 months ago

What are the chances, I just read this ‚fact‘ today in The Forever War by Joe Haldeman and was already kinda doubtful.

[–] RagingHungryPanda@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago

Goddam. This is when the power of regeneration makes nightmare fuel.

[–] Im_old@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So what you are saying is that we should take any scientist that days, make a milkshake of them and feed the next batchnof scientists?

[–] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's what ended the super advanced lost civilizations. They all get advanced enough to figure out feeding scientists to younger scientists preserves knowledge and advances the pace of technological advancement.

Problem is they didn't know that it only works once and they ended up killing leaders of innovation and feeding them to children and forgot everything, leading to ruin.

Read your Bibles people, its all in there.

[–] Im_old@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

it's all in there

Porn included

[–] jaemo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago

Obviously these leeches are Reverend mothers who've undergone the spice agony to unlock their genetic memories.

[–] sourquincelog@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago

Maybe eels are just really good at mazes

[–] wowwoweowza@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Came here to say this.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Probably where sg-1 got the idea for gaould racial memory