Shocking Research: Human Memory Doesn't Exist Only in the Brain

A new study from New York University (USA) shows that other cells outside the brain also have the ability to learn and form memories.

Associate Professor Nikolay V. Kukushkin, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications , said the ability of cells outside the brain to learn and form memories was confirmed through a special experiment.

The authors replicated the learning process over time by studying two types of non-brain human cells in the lab, one from nerve tissue, the other from kidney tissue.

A step in a groundbreaking experiment to prove that every cell in the body has the ability to learn and form memories - (Photo: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY).

The cells in the experiment were exposed to different patterns of chemical signals, similar to the way brain cells are exposed to patterns of neurotransmitters when we learn new information.

In response, the non-brain cells were expected to activate 'memory genes ,' the same genes that brain cells activate when they detect a pattern in information and restructure connections to form memories.

To keep track, the scientists created a glowing protein in these non-brain cells that tells when the "memory gene " is active or inactive.

The results showed that these cells could time chemical pulses, mimicking neurotransmitter bursts in the brain.

This process is also iterative rather than just sustained, as the neurons in our brains can register when we study with breaks rather than cramming all the knowledge into one go.

"This suggests that the ability to learn from spaced repetition is not unique to brain cells, but may in fact be a fundamental property of all cells ," Associate Professor Kukushkin told Medical Xpress .

According to the authors, this discovery not only opens new doors to understanding how memory works, but could also lead to better ways to enhance learning and treat memory problems and other diseases.

In the future, we will need to treat the body more like the brain, says Associate Professor Kukushkin.

'For example, consider what our pancreas remembers about our past eating habits to maintain healthy blood sugar levels, or consider what cancer cells remember about chemotherapy,' he explains.