Our text books teaches us that the brain is where memories are stored. Brain is where thoughts take birth. Brain is where decisions are taken. Reductionist science. Poor ignorance.
This experiment on Aplysia, a sea slugs shows something else. Brain plays a role of platform to execute the actions, memories, decisions and does not store in brain.
Researchers trained these creatures to respond to certain neurotransmitter signals. They then used chemicals to return the synapses to their pre-trained state, which basically eliminated the memorized reflexes. But even though the researchers had altered the neural connections, they found that the long-term memories for those reflexes still persisted covertly. According to the authors of the paper, “these results challenge the idea that stable synapses store long-term memories.”
This concurs the Ayurvedic idea of Panchkoshiya sharir where above physical body, Prana and Mind play essential role in forming memories and taking actions.
Research
Reinstatement of long-term memory following erasure of its behavioral and synaptic expression in Aplysia
Long-term memory (LTM) is believed to be stored in the brain as changes in synaptic connections. Here, we show that LTM storage and synaptic change can be dissociated. Cocultures of Aplysia sensory and motor neurons were trained with spaced pulses of serotonin, which induces long-term facilitation. Serotonin (5HT) triggered growth of new presynaptic varicosities, a synaptic mechanism of long-term sensitization. Following 5HT training, two antimnemonic treatments—reconsolidation blockade and inhibition of PKM—caused the number of presynaptic varicosities to revert to the original, pretraining value. Surprisingly, the final synaptic structure was not achieved by targeted retraction of the 5HT-induced varicosities but, rather, by an apparently arbitrary retraction of both 5HT-induced and original synapses. In addition, we find evidence that the LTM for sensitization persists covertly after its apparent elimination by the same antimnemonic treatments that erase learning-related synaptic growth. These results challenge the idea that stable synapses store long-term memories.
