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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[–] riskable@programming.dev 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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

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[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I dunno. We (both my wife and I) can and have had long conversations with my gut (when there's a rumbly in my tumbly you can hear it across a crowded room) and my gut seems to remember shit. It also has a strange fascination with cheese.

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[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

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.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 9 points 3 days ago (4 children)

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.

[–] VubDapple@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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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[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago

"I Will Fear No Evil, " Robert Heinlein.

[–] herrvogel@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Was that a fictional work or actual patient?

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[–] baldturkeyleg@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (10 children)

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.

[–] rowrowrowyourboat@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38694651/

[–] TherapyGary@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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

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[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago

I was wondering if there is a link between cellular memory and how trauma is encoded into DNA?

[–] Wolferatu@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago

I suppose that explains survival instinct

[–] SanndyTheManndy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

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