Tufts University biologists used planarian flatworms to study where memories are stored. After decapitating the worms, they found that the worms still remembered how to find their food. The researchers believe the worms’ memories must have been stored in other cells of the body and imprinted on the new brain as it regenerated. This could lead researchers in an entirely new direction for studying how memories are maintained.
Many species of worms have the uncanny ability to regenerate organs and other parts of the body, even the brain. In 2013, while conducting research to find out more about how animals store and process information, biologists at Tufts University used planarian flatworms to study where memories are stored. After using the light to teach the worms where they could find food, the scientists chopped off the creatures’ heads. As expected, the worms completely regrown their heads in just two weeks. Surprisingly, the researchers found that those worms still remembered how to find their food. In fact, the worms with the new head had memories as accurate as the control group of worms, which hadn’t been decapitated.
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The researchers admitted they still don’t understand how these findings could be possible, but think the worms’ memories must have been stored in other cells of the body and imprinted on the new brain as it regenerated.
In the past, researchers have focused on brain studies to study how memories are maintained. Tufts biologist Michael Levin said these findings could lead researchers in an entirely new direction.
The answer could come from epigenetic research, which studies how external or environmental factors can turn genes on and off, effectively altering a cell’s transcriptional potential.
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