Dear MEL Topic Readers,
'Memory transplant' achieved in snails
Why snails to study human memories? In fact,
the cells and molecular processes in the marine snails aren’t that different
from the ones of humans. The difference is just the number of neurons in its
central nervous system. The former has about 20,000 and the latter does
billions. In short, snails’ memory system is similar to humans’ but much simpler.
A team of scientists transferred a form of genetic
information called RNA, ribonucleic acid, of marine snails that were trained to
react to electric shocks to another. Surprisingly, the memory-transplanted
snails that had never experienced such shocks showed the same reaction as the
snails that experienced the shocks.
It seems like a step towards better
understanding of how memories are formed, preserved and transferred.
Enjoy reading and learning how one’s memories
could be transplanted to another.
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