[MIND] For generations, we’ve assumed memory to be a purely brain-based function, encoded in the wiring of the tangled neurons and electrical impulses in our brains that surge when we remember a face, a song, or a heart-warming story. But a remarkable study from New York University is forcing us to reconsider that assumption.
The researchers found that human cells outside the brain - including kidney and connective-tissue cells - can display a primitive form of memory-like behavior.
In this research, scientists exposed non-neural cells to bursts of chemical signals (imitating neurotransmitters). When the bursts were spaced apart, the cells activated a specific memory-related gene more strongly and for a longer duration than when signals came rapidly or continuously. That reaction lingered, as if the cells had formed a kind of molecular memory. This research challenges everything we thought we knew. It suggests that memory isn’t just what we think, it’s who we are.