Super memory of animals

It used to be thought that long-term memory is the type of memory that is unique to humans. But recent research results have made the scientific community change their way of thinking about animal memory.

Not inferior to geniuses

A species of bird recorded as a special memory is the Clark's Nutcracker in the West of South America. This bird has the characteristic of always storing food. When it is about to winter, each Clark's Nutcracker bird will harvest more than 30,000 pine nuts. It will bury them into 7,000 different secret hiding places, each with 4-5 seeds. Their memory is so great that they can find all of their 7,000 hiding places later. They will dig up and gradually eat these seeds during the winter.

Australian scientists have experimented with the ability to identify the monkeys and pigeons that are two active animals during the day. Both species have a special memory. They can record hundreds of images and miss them for years.

Scientific experiments were conducted on Columbia pigeons and Paviane baboons. They let experimental animals see different pictures with highlights on the right or left. The pigeon will be instructed to respond by surgery on the bright spots, and the baboon will put the head into the lever.

Clark's Nutcracker (Photo: Marietta)

The results show that pigeons remember 800-1,200 images, while baboons remember more, from 3,000-3,500 images. Whenever there is a suspicious, uncertain image, they seem to be puzzled and take the time to think before deciding. Scientists believe that monkeys and pigeons have the same mechanism of image memory. The evolution of the past 250 million years has not changed this mechanism in birds and mammals.

Goldfish is a ornamental fish raised from more than 1,000 years ago in China, which is quite popular in many countries around the world. Scientists have previously thought that this fish has only short-term memory (a form of memory that lasts only a few minutes to a few hours). That is, goldfish will forget what it has just eaten, and do not remember changing the water in the tank a few minutes ago.

The experiments conducted by researcher Yoichi Oda (Osaka University, Japan) show that goldfish have a better memory than we think. His way of doing it is quite simple, it is to train conditioned fishes with conditioned reflexes. They will recognize the person who came to feed and rise to the surface. And they remember the relationship between the person feeding and the meals c

Columbia pigeon (Photo: Discovery)

of them. He said that goldfish have the ability to remember the faces of feeding people and distinguish them from the faces of strangers. They will swim more comfortably when owners appear, and hide when they see unfamiliar eyes.

Fish also remember the lessons they learn from their fellow humans. They learn by observing what happens around them like a community school.

According to Ava Chase (Rowland Institute of Science, Cambridge University, USA), fish can also remember and distinguish music genres. She experimented by letting them listen to different songs while feeding them different foods. She discovered that they were able to distinguish different genres of music.

Mr. John Lovell (Institute of Oceanography, University of Plymouth) trained his fish to swim in the direction of certain sounds. Then he released his fish to the ocean and could call them back by emitting those sounds.

Mechanism of memory

Memory has two forms: long-term memory and short-term memory. Kandel's research (2000 Nobel Prize in Biology) on sea slug proved that short-term and long-term memory in the sea slug lies in the synapse (the place where signals from a neuron come Another neuron is through chemical transmitters. Each neuron has thousands of synapses like that. Changes in synaptic function are crucial in the formation of different types of memory.

Chinese goldfish (Photo: ancientacu)

In the 1990s, he also conducted many studies in mice, found that the type of long-term changes in synaptic function during learning of sea slugs also applies to mammals.

Kandel initially suggested that weak stimulation can create a form of short-term memory, lasting from a few minutes to several hours. This mechanism causes calcium ions to enter the nerve endings more. This phenomenon increases the amount of synaptic transmitters, and thereby amplifies the reflex. Longer and stronger stimuli will form long-term memory that can last for weeks. The formation of some forms of this protein will increase, while the formation of some other forms will decrease. In contrast, long-term memory requires the creation of new proteins. If blocking the synthesis of these new proteins, long-term memory will be inhibited, but short-term memory is not.

Nguyen Anh Hung (Summary from NG, ABC)