I don' really see how a change in gene expression in the nucleus of a neuron caused by methylation could store long term memories, since most neural network models store all most all their information in the location and differentiation of they synapses.
How is information in a neural net stored by making what would appear to be only neuron-wide behaviors? Such a global change might be valuable for signally that a record of recent events in the neuron at a give brief period of time, should be stored, but it would not appear to actually keep them stored over a long period of time. I think the article failed to mention an important part of the theory of what is going on. Ed Porter -----Original Message----- From: Terren Suydam [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 12:16 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [agi] Lamarck Lives!(?) Ed, That's a good point about synapses, but perhaps the methylation just affects the neuron's output, e.g., the targeted genes express proteins that only find a functional role in the axon. Terren --- On Wed, 12/3/08, Ed Porter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Richard, > > The role played by the epigenome in genetics actually does > have a slightly > Lamarckian tinge. Nova had a show saying that when > identical twins are born > their epigenomes are very similar, but that as they age > their epigenomes > start to differ more an more, and that certain behaviors > like drinking or > smoking can increase the rate at which such changes take > place. > > What I didn't understand about the article you linked > to is that it appears > they are changing the epigenome to change the expression of > DNA, but as far > as I know DNA only appears in the nucleus (with the > exception of > mitochondirial DNA), and thus would appear to affect the > cell as a whole, > and thus not be good at differentially affecting the > strengths of different > synapses --- as would presumably be required for most > neuronal memory --- > unless the nuclear DNA had some sort of mapping to > individual synapses, or > unless local changes to mitochondrial DNA, near a synapse > are involved. The > article does not appear to shed in any light on this issue > of how changes in > the expression of DNA would affect learning at the synapse > level, where most > people think it occurs. > > Ed Porter > > -----Original Message----- > From: Richard Loosemore [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 11:12 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [agi] Lamarck Lives!(?) > > > 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. > > Would it mean that memories (including cultural > adaptations) could be > passed from mother to child? > > 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? > > > > Richard Loosemore > > > > ------------------------------------------- > agi > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ > Modify Your Subscription: > https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > > > > ------------------------------------------- > agi > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ > Modify Your Subscription: > https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=120640061-aded06 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
