Summary: Recent analysis challenges the notion that neurons are the only ones that you store and process memories outside the brain. Researchers found that non-brain cells, when exposed to set substance signals, activated a “memory dna” equally to neurons.
This finding suggests that all organisms may learn from repetition. Results can help us improve our understanding of memory and provide new solutions for memory-related and learning-related problems.
According to the study, our bodies may be able to store data in ways that were originally thought to be brain-specific. Future studies does investigate how organs “remember” past experience, with implications for health and condition.
Important Information:
- Non-brain storage: Cells from brain and liver tissue activated a “memory protein” after placed stimulation, similar to neurons.
- Massed-spaced result: Non-brain cell retained signals more clearly with repeated, spaced chemical cues than ongoing indicators.
- Potential discoveries: This could lead to novel approaches to treating storage disorders and a deeper knowledge of organ function.
Origin: NYU
It’s common knowledge that our brains—and, especially, our brain cell —store thoughts. However, a team of researchers has discovered that memory-related cells from other body regions also serve as well, opening new avenues for understanding how memory functions and giving researchers the chance to improve understanding and address memory-related conditions.  ,
” Learning and memory are usually associated with neurons and brain cell only, but our research shows that various cells in the body can study and form thoughts, too”, explains New York University ‘s , Nikolay V. Kukushkin, the lead author of the , review, which appears in the journal , Nature Communications.  ,
The study sought to understand whether non-brain cells could aid memory by drawing from a well-established neurological trait, the massed-spaced effect, which suggests that studying information in spaced intervals rather than in a single, intensive session is more effective than cramming for a test.
In the , Nature Communications , research, the scientists replicated learning over time by studying two types of non-brain human cells in a laboratory ( one from nerve tissue and one from kidney tissue ) and exposing them to different patterns of chemical signals —just like brain cells are exposed to patterns of neurotransmitters when we learn new information.
The non-brain cells responded by activating a “memory gene,” the same gene that brain cells activate when they discover patterns in the information and restructure their connections to create memories.
The scientists created a glowing protein that indicated when the memory gene was active and off in these non-brain cells to monitor the memory and learning process.
The results demonstrated that these cells could recognize when the chemical pulses, which mimic brain neurotransmitters, were repeated rather than just prolonged, just like our brains can register when we practice learning breaks rather than cramming everything in one sitting.
Specifically, when the pulses were delivered in spaced-out intervals, they turned on the “memory gene” more strongly, and for a longer time, than when the same treatment was delivered all at once.
” This reflects the massed-space effect in action”, says Kukushkin, a clinical associate professor of life science at NYU Liberal Studies and a research fellow at NYU’s Center for Neural Science.
” It shows that the ability to learn from spaced repetition is n’t unique to brain cells, but, in fact, might be a fundamental property of all cells”.
The findings, according to the researchers, provide new ways to study memory and also demonstrate potential health-related advantages.
According to Kukushkin,” This discovery opens new avenues for understanding how memory functions and could lead to improved methods to enhance learning and treat memory problems.”
It also suggests that we will need to treat our bodies more like the brains, such as by examining how our pancreas recalls our past meals in order to maintain healthy blood sugar levels, or what a cancer cell recalls about how chemotherapy is administered.
Kukushkin, a professor at NYU’s Center for Neural Science, and Thomas Carew, a professor, co-supervised the project. The study’s authors also included Tasnim Tabassum, an NYU researcher, and Robert Carney, an NYU undergraduate researcher at the time of the study.
Funding: This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health ( R01-MH120300-01A1 ).  ,
About this news about memory and genetics
Author: James Devitt
Source: NYU
Contact: James Devitt – NYU
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
” The massed-spaced learning effect in non-neural human cells” by Nikolay Kukushkin et al. Nature Communications
Abstract
The massed-spaced learning effect in non-neural human cells
The massed-spaced effect is a hallmark feature of memory formation. We now demonstrate this in two distinct, immortalized non-neural cell lines that stably express a CREB-dependent short-lived luciferase reporter reporter.
We emulate training using repeated pulses of forskolin and/or phorbol ester, and, as a proxy for memory, measure luciferase expression at various points after training.
Unlike a single “massed” pulse, four spaced pulses of either agonist produce stronger and more sustained luciferase expression.
The massed-spaced effect is also facilitated by stronger, more persistent activation of the molecular factors necessary for memory formation, ERK and CREB, and ERK and CREB inhibition blocks the massed-spaced effect.
Our findings demonstrate that the dynamics of signaling cascades that are conserved across different cell types can be embedded in the dynamics of canonical features of memory rather than necessarily depend on neural circuitry.
