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Brain isn’t the only part of the body that forms memories, says study
Cognitive functions such as memory, learning, and information processing, traditionally associated with the brain, can also be found in the other parts of the body.
A new study establishes that “all cells” in our body can form memories, which can be used to enhance learning and treat memory-related problems.
Other body parts imitate functions of the brain
Researchers from New York University have learned from the latest study that the non-brain cells in our body can retain information when studied in spaced intervals.
They engineered non-brain cells from the pancreas and kidney to make a glowing protein, which would indicate the activation of the memory gene, just like the brain does.
Scientists found that non-brain cells could determine chemical pulses imitating bursts of neurotransmitters in the brain when fed information with breaks rather than in one setting.
Commenting on the findings of the study, Kukushkin, a clinical associate professor of life science at NYU Liberal Studies said:
“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.”
Scientists believe the latest discovery “opens new doors for understanding how memory works”, leading to better ways to enhance learning and treat memory problems.
The brain is a complex organ
Although non-brain cells can retain memory, the brain is more complex than you’d imagine. Recent studies have found that it can predict the future and automatically correct spelling in short texts.
As opposed to the popular belief that the eye causes a reaction in the brain, researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience found that the brain predicts future events based on past experiences.
They better explain it with an example of a ball thrown at us and our instinct to catch it – not because of the vision captured by the eye, but due to the previous experiences of catching a ball.
Similarly, the brain is also known for its at-a-glance approach to processing language – judging a sentence by its basic structure rather than grammar.
This is why you tend to miss spelling errors, especially in short texts as the brain automatically fixes them before fully processing them.
