On 12/3/2008 8:11 AM, Richard Loosemore wrote:
Am I right in thinking that what these people:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026845.000-memories-may-be-stored-on-your-dna.html
are saying is that memories can be stored as changes in the DNA inside neurons? If so, that would upset a few apple carts.
Yes, but it obviously needs a lot more confirmation first. :-)
Would it mean that memories (including cultural adaptations) could be passed from mother to child?
No. As far as I understand it, they are proposing changes to the DNA in the neural cells only, so it wouldn't be passed on. And I would expect that the changes are specific to the neural structure of the subject, so even if you moved the changes to DNA in another subject, it wouldn't "work."
Implication for neuroscientists proposing to build a WBE (whole brain emulation): the resolution you need may now have to include all the DNA in every neuron. Any bets on when they will have the resolution to do that?
No bets here. But they are proposing that elements are added onto the DNA, not that changes are made in arbitrary locations within the DNA, so it's not /quite/ as bad as you suggest
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