Researchers May Have Discovered How Memories Are Encoded In the Brain

Zothecula writes "While it's generally accepted that memories are stored somewhere, somehow in our brains, the exact process has never been entirely understood. Strengthened synaptic connections between neurons definitely have something to do with it, although the synaptic membranes involved are constantly degrading and being replaced – this seems to be somewhat at odds with the fact that some memories can last for a person's lifetime. Now, a team of scientists believe that they may have figured out what's going on. Their findings could have huge implications for the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's."

Re:religious implications?

[Quartus486]

Can't answer for other religions, but this is what the Bible says:

Ecclesiastes 9 (New International Version)

  5 For the living know that they will die,
      but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward,
      and even their name is forgotten.

10 Whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with all your might, for in the realm
of the dead, where you are going,
there is neither working nor planning
nor knowledge nor wisdom.

My mind is blown

[DaleGlass]

I took a look at the paper in case I managed to understand something, and came across this:

Information Storage Capacity

If each extended kinase can either phosphorylate at the S-T site on a tubulin substrate, or not, the process effectively conveys one bit of information (e.g. no phosphorylation = 0, phosphorylation = 1). Each set of six extended kinases on either side of a CaMKII holoenzyme can thus act collectively as 6 bits of information. Ordered arrays of bits are termed âbytesâ(TM).
[...]

Logic Gates

Clusters of phosphorylated tubulin, and/or MAP attachment may serve as logic gates for propagating information. Figures 9 and 10 demonstrate two types of Boolean logic gates, an AND gate and an exclusive OR gate (XOR) in which MAPs convey inputs, with output along tubulin pathways. Figures 11 and 12 show AND and XOR gates in which MAPs convey output of inputs and processes in tubulins within the MT. The combination of XOR and AND logic gates forms a universal set for computation in which all other logic gates (NOT, OR etc.) can be conceived. Signals propagating through MT-MAP logic circuits may extend throughout cytoskeletal networks, regulating synaptic function, cognition and behavior.

Whoa. If that research is correct then that's really amazing.

Re:religious implications?

[asher09]

Throughout the OT & NT, "the realm (place/assembly) of the dead" always refers to the place where the condemned will end up and not the saints (those who are justified by faith in God). The place that the saints end up with is referred to as heaven / the land of the living / the dwelling place of the Most High / Paradise / New Jerusalem, etc, but not "the realm of the dead".
Moreover, Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon when he was "backsliding" (ie falling away from the faith). So he was being cynical about life and not hopeful about future with God. It's easy to take verses out of context and come up with non-Christian ideas from the book of Ecclesiastes for this reason.

Re:Fuck GizMag

[La Gris]

The memorization job during night is more like a reprocessing of the short term pattern matching, or optimization.

Let imagine you saw a calico cat during the day:
Your short term memory barely stored the information patterns nearly as :
1 - Surrounding environment (time, location, current occupation)
2 - Encounter with a wandering animal.
3 - The known cat of your neighbor.
4 - An uncommon variety calico.

During the night you reprocess optimize/compress the following pattern information as:
1 - related and share the same pattern memory as: your usual work commute
2 - related and share common animal encounters,
3 - share the already memorized recognition pattern of your neighbor's cat.
4 - share your already memorized recognition pattern of calico cats.

If you sleep/dream good enough, your brain will iterate and further optimize/reduce these patterns by walking across which materialize as dreams.

Your awake activity will bring new data as patterns that will help optimize and compress older memory patterns. In the long run, it may even produce lighter or more optimized memory, merging each duplicate information with "related to". Commonly used relations will wire faster actual synaptic links.