Memory transfer was a biological process proposed byJames V. McConnell and others in the 1960s. Memory transfer proposes a chemical basis formemory termedmemoryRNA which can bepassed down through flesh instead of an intact nervous system. Since RNA encodes information[1] and living cells produce and modify RNA in reaction to external events, it might also be used inneurons to record stimuli.[2][3][4] This was proposed as an explanation for the results of McConnell's experiments in whichplanarians retained memory ofacquired information afterregeneration.
In McConnell's experiments, heclassically conditioned planarians to contract their bodies upon exposure to light by pairing it with an electric shock.[5][6] The planarians retained this acquired information after being sliced andregenerated, even after multiple slicings to produce a planarian where none of the original trained planarian was present.[6] The same held true after the planarians were ground up and fed to untrainedcannibalistic planarians, usuallyDugesia dorotocephala.[6][7] As the nervous system was fragmented but the nucleic acids were not, this seemed to indicate the existence of memory RNA.[6] Some further experiments seem to support the original findings in that some memories may be stored outside the brain,[1][8][9]but McConnell's experiments proved to be largelyirreproducible and it was later suggested that only sensitization was transferred,[5] or that no transfer occurred and the effect was due tostress hormones in the donor orpheromone trails left on dirty lab glass.[2] Memory transfer through memory RNA is not currently a well-accepted explanation for the planarian behavior.[6]
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