In a remarkable finding that challenges what scientists have long believed, a new study finds that the ability to learn and form memories is not exclusive to the brain, but is in fact a fundamental property shared by cells throughout the human body.
The study, led by Nikolay V. Kukushkin of New York University and published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, reveals that non-brain cells, including those from nerve and kidney tissues, can detect patterns in their environment and respond by activating a “memory gene” – the same gene that brain cells use to restructure their connections and form memories.
“Learning and memory are generally associated with brains and brain cells alone, but our study shows that other cells in the body can learn and form memories, too,” explains Kukushkin, a clinical associate professor at NYU, in a media release.
To uncover this unexpected discovery, the researchers exposed two types of non-brain human cells to different patterns of chemical signals, mimicking the way brain cells respond to neurotransmitters during the learning process. By engineering the cells to produce a glowing protein when the memory gene was activated, the team was able to monitor the cells’ learning and memory capabilities.
The striking results reveal that the non-brain cells were able to distinguish between continuous and spaced-out patterns of the chemical signals, just as neurons in the brain can recognize the difference between cramming information and learning through repeated exposure over time.
“This reflects the massed-space effect in action,” says Kukushkin, referring to the well-established neurological principle that we retain information better when it is studied in spaced intervals rather than all at once.
Specifically, the researchers found that when the chemical pulses were delivered in spaced-out intervals, the non-brain cells turned on the memory gene more strongly and for a longer duration than when the same treatment was delivered continuously.
“It shows that the ability to learn from spaced repetition isn’t unique to brain cells, but, in fact, might be a fundamental property of all cells,” Kukushkin observes.
This discovery not only challenges our understanding of memory, but also opens up new avenues for enhancing learning and treating memory-related disorders. Kukushkin suggests that in the future, we may need to consider what other cells in the body “remember” in order to maintain healthy function.
Source: https://studyfinds.org/your-body-forms-memories-too-just-like-your-brain/