Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

news.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 88 posts

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#31

Post by jcims »

victor106 wrote: post #20
jcims wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My memory is generally terrible. One discovery that was alarming, encouraging and disturbing at the same time is that I do appear to have some form of nearly total recall buried in there somewhere. Unfortunately it only surfaces in one way. If I listen to a podcast while I’m doing something, then listen to that same podcast again within a week or so, I will have regular, intrusive visual recall of exactly what I was…

This is cool. Will try it.

I never noticed or attempted to prime it. Just go listen to some episodes that you’ve listened to recently and see what happens. It’s not like rolling a projector when you hit play, it’ll fade in and out most likely.

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#32

Post by Roark66 »

It is really cool we're getting (slightly) closer to the understanding how memories work.

It is still basic research, but if I understand the significance of this correctly having a confirmation there are specific physical changes neurons undergo when forming some kinds of memories allows at least theoretically extraction of those memories from pieces of inactive tissue. As a layman in the subject I've been always very much interested how much of our personality and consciousness is "encoded" in the electro-chemical activity (software) vs how things are connected and formed together(hardware). The more of "us" is in the hardware the more likely someone in future will come up with a way to "scan" features of dead tissue to recover (in a simulation perhaps) the person lost to death.

We're currently probably as far from that as a medieval battlefield "surgeon" from modern heart transplant, but at least we're moving in the right direction.

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#33

Post by [deleted] »

supernova87a wrote: post #6
andelu wrote: post #2

Original article here (paywalled): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-00717-0

Just reading the abstract, is it me, or did the authors revel in spewing a ridiculous amount of jargon instead of using the opportunity to give a simple and clear statement of the fundamental finding of the work to a general scientific audience? "The epigenome and three-dimensional (3D) genomic architecture are emerging as key factors in the dynamic regulation of different transcriptional programs required for neuron…

[deleted]

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#34

Post by cblconfederate »

Roark66 wrote: post #32

It is really cool we're getting (slightly) closer to the understanding how memories work. It is still basic research, but if I understand the significance of this correctly having a confirmation there are specific physical changes neurons undergo when forming some kinds of memories allows at least theoretically extraction of those memories from pieces of inactive tissue. As a layman in the subject I've been always ve…

If our current connectionist understanding of the brain is correct, then we should be able to recover a personality from a very detailed CT scan, and maybe in the future to revive it. (Personally, i d prefer that in a solar-powered ball that is shot out of the solar system in high velocity)

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#35

Post by bsenftner »

cblconfederate wrote: post #28
culopatin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people need something to talk about and universities benefit from the publicity perhaps?

well people don't know what they re talking about when it's about so specialized basic research. Universities do benefit from the publicity , but it feels like selling snake oil to naive people.

This announcement is for student candidates in the field, fellow professionals in the field, and the larger layman field of financing sources for the University.

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#36

Post by amelius »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #13

Maybe one day we'll have pills to have total recall for a few hours, wouldn't that be cool for exams and learning languages ? I much prefer that than a chip in my head which the silicon valley seems super keen on selling me.

Or a pill to erase specific parts of memory. You could see the same movie over and over again. In fact, you could cancel your Netflix subscription.

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#37

Post by hans1729 »

Roark66 wrote: post #32

It is really cool we're getting (slightly) closer to the understanding how memories work. It is still basic research, but if I understand the significance of this correctly having a confirmation there are specific physical changes neurons undergo when forming some kinds of memories allows at least theoretically extraction of those memories from pieces of inactive tissue. As a layman in the subject I've been always ve…

I'd argue that the line between software and hardware isn't as clear in neuro as someone with an IT background would like to think, specifically because the electro-chemical activities going on are both, hard and soft, at the same time. This isn't some abstract process running on a biological computer, the biological computer is the sum of the processes that constitute itself. (That's the fascinating thing about bio)

To form a memory is something completely different than to store data in a db, as it involves lots and lots of encoding factors. If anything is actually stored, it's not the memory itself, but the perception at time T in relation to the expectations for T, i.e. a delta (think of the times when you listen to a song from the old days and it hurts, because the emotional connotation from back then doesn't match the current situation). Retrieving this delta would be meaningless unless you have the matching interpreter, the entire status machine.

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#38

Post by HPsquared »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #13

Maybe one day we'll have pills to have total recall for a few hours, wouldn't that be cool for exams and learning languages ? I much prefer that than a chip in my head which the silicon valley seems super keen on selling me.

Total recall would be quite bad, every little irrelevant detail would be stored.

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#39

Post by j7ake »

cblconfederate wrote: post #14

I often wonder why universities post these press releases for the general public. Epigenetic modifications and memory is still basic research in early investigation, known to play a role in memory extinction and reconsolidation for example, but this is still too early research to make any concrete announcements that would have actionable information, esp. for the general public.

Universities do research, and publications in major journals are the units of outcome. It is not surprising to put this on the university website because it is good exposure. The people who browse university websites are often other academics, so this is indeed an announcement to the broad scientific community and brings prestige to the university.

This would be comparable to winning some scientific prizes, since they are accomplishments that are hard and competitive to achieve. Of course the general public does not care about which scientists win which prizes.

This is all part of marketing to get broad exposure to the scientific community first, general public second.

Re: Neuroscientists discover molecular mechanism that allows memories to form (2020)

#40

Post by zo1 »

amelius wrote: post #36
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #13

Maybe one day we'll have pills to have total recall for a few hours, wouldn't that be cool for exams and learning languages ? I much prefer that than a chip in my head which the silicon valley seems super keen on selling me.

Or a pill to erase specific parts of memory. You could see the same movie over and over again. In fact, you could cancel your Netflix subscription.

You could A/B test with a single person!
Post reply on HN