The brain is our memory palace, since it is in this organ – and specifically in a series of brain cells – where the things we learn and the memories about the experiences we live are stored. At least this was what was believed until now, since a team of scientists has just discovered that cells located in other parts of the body also fulfill a memory function.
This surprising finding offers new perspectives for understanding how memory works and raises the possibility of improving learning and treating memory-related pathologies. “Learning and memory are usually associated only with the brain and its cells, but our study shows that other cells in the body can also learn and form memories,” explained Nikolay V. Kukushkin of New York University, who has led this study.
The research sought to understand whether non-brain cells also contribute to the storage of memories, based on a well-known neurological principle: the space-time effect. This effect suggests that we retain information better when it is studied at spaced intervals, rather than in one intensive session, such as when we try to study all the material included in an exam in a single night.
All cells could have the ability to learn
To carry out the study, the scientists replicated the learning over time by analyzing two types of non-brain human cells in the laboratory (one from nervous tissue and the other from kidney tissue) and exposed them to patterns of chemical signals, similar to how brain cells receive neurotransmitter patterns when learning new information. In response, the non-brain cells activated a “memory gene,” the same one that neurons activate when they detect a pattern and reorganize their connections to form memories.
To monitor this process, the scientists engineered non-brain cells to produce a fluorescent protein that indicated when the memory gene was active. The results have been published in the journal Nature Communications and showed that these cells could distinguish when chemical pulses, which simulated bursts of neurotransmitters, were repeated at intervals, rather than maintained continuously. This effect was more marked when the pulses occurred at spaced intervals, activating the memory gene stronger and longer than when they were administered all at once.
“This reflects the space-time effect in action” and “shows that the ability to learn through spaced repetition is not unique to brain cells; in fact, it could be a fundamental property of all cells,” says Kukushkin, who is an associate professor of life sciences at NYU and a member of the university’s Center for Neural Sciences.
“This discovery opens new doors to understanding how memory works and could lead to better methods to improve learning and treat memory problems.”
The researchers add that these findings not only offer new ways to study memory, but also suggest possible health benefits. “This discovery opens new doors to understanding how memory works and could lead to better methods to improve learning and treat memory problems,” says Kukushkin.
“At the same time, it raises the idea that in the future we will need to treat our body in a more similar way to the brain; for example, considering what the pancreas remembers about the patterns of our previous meals to maintain healthy blood glucose levels, or what a cancer cell remembers about the patterns of chemotherapy,” concludes the expert.
