Memories Are Made By Breaking DNA - and Fixing It (nature.com) 23
When a long-term memory forms, some brain cells experience a rush of electrical activity so strong that it snaps their DNA. Then, an inflammatory response kicks in, repairing this damage and helping to cement the memory, a study in mice shows. Nature: The findings, published on 27 March in Nature, are "extremely exciting," says Li-Huei Tsai, a neurobiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge who was not involved in the work. They contribute to the picture that forming memories is a "risky business," she says. Normally, breaks in both strands of the double helix DNA molecule are associated with diseases including cancer. But in this case, the DNA damage-and-repair cycle offers one explanation for how memories might form and last.
It also suggests a tantalizing possibility: this cycle might be faulty in people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, causing a build-up of errors in a neuron's DNA, says study co-author Jelena Radulovic, a neuroscientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. [...] To better understand the part these DNA breaks play in memory formation, Radulovic and her colleagues trained mice to associate a small electrical shock with a new environment, so that when the animals were once again put into that environment, they would 'remember' the experience and show signs of fear, such as freezing in place. Then the researchers examined gene activity in neurons in a brain area key to memory -- the hippocampus. They found that some genes responsible for inflammation were active in a set of neurons four days after training. Three weeks after training, the same genes were much less active.
It also suggests a tantalizing possibility: this cycle might be faulty in people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, causing a build-up of errors in a neuron's DNA, says study co-author Jelena Radulovic, a neuroscientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. [...] To better understand the part these DNA breaks play in memory formation, Radulovic and her colleagues trained mice to associate a small electrical shock with a new environment, so that when the animals were once again put into that environment, they would 'remember' the experience and show signs of fear, such as freezing in place. Then the researchers examined gene activity in neurons in a brain area key to memory -- the hippocampus. They found that some genes responsible for inflammation were active in a set of neurons four days after training. Three weeks after training, the same genes were much less active.
Alzheimer's, Dementia, and Schizophrenia (Score:5, Insightful)
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I find it exciting, the first step to fixing a problem is identifying it.
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Standard CRISPR-Cas9 works by cutting both strands of the DNA double helix. That injury causes a cell to activate a biochemical first-aid kit orchestrated by a gene called p53, which either mends the DNA break or makes the cell self-destruct.
Whichever action p53 takes, the consequence is the same: CRISPR doesn’t work, either because the genome edit is stitched up or the cell is dead. (The Novartis team calculated that p53 reduces CRISPR efficiency in pluripotent stem cells seventeenfold.)
Cells are often under attack from viruses. Systems for preventing viral DNA changes also resist scientists meddling with it with CRISPR. How is a cell supposed to know that its a scientist or doctor trying to change its DNA and not some insidious virus?
But wait, it gets worse. CRISPR could cause or accelerate cancer
Editing cells’ genomes with CRISPR-Cas9 might increase the risk that the altered cells, intended to treat disease, will trigger cancer, two studies published on Monday warn — a potential game-changer for the companies developing CRISPR-based therapies.
In the studies, published in Nature Medicine, scientists found that cells whose genomes are successfully edited by CRISPR-Cas9 have the potential to seed tumors inside a patient. That could make some CRISPR’d cells ticking time bombs, according to researchers from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and, separately, Novartis.
https://science.slashdot.org/s... [slashdot.org] Non paywalled: "A serious new hurdle for CRISPR: Edited cells might cause cancer, find two studies" https://web.archive.org/web/20... [archive.org]
A century off but. (Score:1)
Re:A century off but. (Score:4, Interesting)
Regardless of how traumatic various memories are, no memories should ever be erased. A person's entire identity IS their choices and memories. Just like we see with Alzheimer patients, when they can't remember they entire personality shifts. This tech should be used only to ever improve memory functions.
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What about brain stimulation to accelerate that process [newscientist.com]?
I don't think your point is incorrect, but it's also true of all emotional reactions, so the same argument holds against any psychoactive medication. It makes you different than "nature intended." But some people don't want to be exactly whoever they happen to be.
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Reducing the impact of painful and traumatic memories is fine. The problem will come from if we find ways to actually remove or suppress the memory completely.
Re: A century off but. (Score:2)
Why do you even need an identity? You'll still be you without one.
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Metaphysically, sure. Steve is still Steve, but it won't be the same Steve as before the memory removal. Nor will Steve then be the same as he was before the traumatic event happened, because other events have happened that only happened because of that traumatic experience. You are only you because of all your choices and experiences (and therefore memories) up until the present.
Re: A century off but. (Score:2)
So you don't need an identity. You'll be you whether you identify as you or not.
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Yes. There's one objective material world, yet everyone has their own inner movie that they're experiencing. Now, if all is material, then there's no need for that inner experiencer. We would just react and process like a machine that's sophisticated yet has no sentience. A machine could replicate a human in every way without needing to also be sentient. But people who deny the problem kinda claim that the sentience is irrelevant, or an illusion of sentience, yet if you were not sentient then there would be
Re: A century off but. (Score:2)
A doesn't mean B.
Memories were obviously neurological. We've known this for decades from brain damage research.
But a feeling has never ever been seen in a brain. Nor a seat of consciousness.
How the mighty have fallen. (Score:4, Interesting)
The journalist who wrote the title "Memories Are Made By Breaking DNA - and Fixing It" and the editor who approved it need to be fired and go work at Buzzfeed or something.
Yes, technically, for some definition of 'memories' one can argue that the title is not false. It's clickbaity and misleading as fuck though, as the percentage of what people understand to be 'memories' that is impacted by this is incredibly small.
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Well, it is fair to say that I don't know for certain, but: the results revolve around a very traumatic experience of being shocked.
The article even says this:
"To better understand the part these DNA breaks play in memory formation, Radulovic and her colleagues trained mice to associate a small electrical shock with a new environment, so that when the animals were once again put into that environment, they would ‘remember’ the experience and show signs of fear, such as freezing in place. "
Note t
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I did wonder about the same thing reading the summary, since even just accessing an old memory does modify and replace it [northwestern.edu]... so does that mean the mere act of recollection requires or causes DNA ruptures?
Anyways, I'm not an expert, but to me the idea that "memory" is not any single mechanism - that we're not just identifying multiple aspects of the same com
Yeah, why skip the very first paragraph? (Score:2)
"When a long-term memory forms, some brain cells experience a rush of electrical activity so strong that it snaps their DNA. Then, an inflammatory response kicks in, repairing this damage and helping to cement the memory, a study in mice shows."
So if you're trying to learn something new... (Score:3)
... dont take anti inflammatories!
Maybe.
Gotta break your brain to learn? (Score:3)
So at a microscopic level, learning really does cause brain damage? I suppose it's not that surprising. Muscle needs a signal like this to build as well.