Our brain and more specifically the neurons that reside there play an absolutely central role in memory. But contrary to what one might believe, this body is not the only guarantor. A team of researchers from New York University recently demonstrated that other cells also contribute to recording certain information — a discovery that could revolutionize our understanding of this important mechanism.
« Learning and memory are usually associated only with the brain and brain cells, but our study shows that other cells in the body can also learn and form memories “, explains Nikolay V. Kukushkin of New York University, the lead author of the study published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.
And « memory gene » activated by other cells
To better understand the physical foundations of memory, researchers began by focusing on the spacing effectthe phenomenon that makes it more effective to train your long-term memory by multiplying small learning sessions instead of trying to absorb a lot of knowledge at once. In particular, they wanted to check whether cells other than neurons contributed to this process.
To achieve this, they grew two types of non-brain cells in the laboratory, namely kidney cells and others that came from peripheral nerve tissue. These cells were previously modified in the laboratory in order to associate a fluorescent marker with a specific gene, so that it begins to glow when activated. This therefore allows researchers to know exactly when it is called upon by the cellular machinery.
In this case, it was a “ memory gene ”, which is activated in brain cells when they detect information that is worth recording. It is through the activation of this gene that neurons can initiate the process of restructuring their connections to form a memory. In other words, if the cells marked in this way start to glow, we can deduce that they are recording information.
The researchers then exposed these crops to neurotransmittersthe signaling molecules that allow nerve cells to communicate. The latter administered following very specific patterns, in order to imitate the signaling which reaches brain cells during learning.
And the results were quite spectacular: the cells began to glow, showing that they responded to this stimulation by activating this famous memory gene as neurons in the brain do. Furthermore, this brightness, which directly reflects the level of activation of the gene, was stronger and of longer duration when these neurotransmitter pulses were repeated. However, since we know that these repetitions contribute to the formation of memories, this is probably not a coincidence. That strongly suggests that these cells can also form “memories”even if we cannot necessarily request them directly like those which are recorded in the brain.
« This is a manifestation of the spacing effect in action », Explain the authors. “ This shows that the ability to learn based on repeated patterns is not reserved for brain cells, and may in fact be a fundamental property of all cells. ».
Fascinating implications for research and medicine
This discovery could offer us new ways to study the mechanisms of memory. A very exciting prospect for researchers. Because even if the cellular processes involved, such as neurotransmitter-based signaling, are beginning to be relatively well understood, neurobiologists still lack perspective on the overall architecture of this extremely complex mechanism that is memory. It is therefore a superb opportunity to advance this field of research which, until now, seemed confined to cognitive sciences.
The icing on the cake is that this work could also have much more concrete benefits, beyond fundamental science. In addition to opening the door to ways to improve learning, this discovery could also revolutionize the way certain diseases are treated.
« All of this suggests that in the future we may need to treat our entire body like the brain. For example, we could take into account the “memories” that our pancreas keeps from our last meals to maintain stable blood sugar levels, or look at what cancer cells have retained from the last chemotherapy sessions. », conclude the authors. It will therefore be appropriate to keep this study in mind, and to look at the fascinating work that it will perhaps inspire in the future.
The text of the study is available here.
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