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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Body memory | 3/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_memory | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:17:35.721939+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Flatworms === Biologists at Tufts University have been able to train flatworms despite the loss of the brain and head. This may show memory stored in other parts of the body in some animals. A worm reduced to 1/279th of the original can be regrown within a few weeks and be trained much quicker to head towards light and open space for food, an unnatural behavior for a flatworm. With each head removed training times appear reduced. This may just be a sign of epigenetics showing the appearance of memory. However, in the 1950s and 1960s James McConnell flatworm experiments measured how long it took to learn a maze. McConnell trained some to move around a maze and then chopped them up and fed them to untrained worms. The untrained group learned faster compared to a control that had not been fed trained worms. McConnell believed the experiment indicated cellular memory. The training involved stressing the worms with electric shock. This kind of stress releases persistent hormones and shows no evidence for memory transfer. Similar experiments with mice being trained and being fed to untrained mice showed improved learning. It was not a memory that was transferred but hormone enriched tissue.
=== Current usage and research ===
In epigenetics there are various mechanisms for cells to pass on "memories" of stressors to their progeny. Strategies include Msn2 nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling, changes in chromatin, partitioning of anti-stress factors, and damaged macromolecules between mother and daughter cells. In adaptive immunity there is a functional CM that enables the immune system to learn to react to pathogens through mechanisms such as cytoxic memory mediation in bone marrow, innate immune memory in stromal cells, fungal mediation of innate and inherited immunological response, and T and B-cell immune training. In this regard CM is essential for vaccine and immunity research.
== References ==
== External links == Cellular memory hints at the origins of intelligence, Nature, dated 23 January 2008