Do old brain cells transfer memory to new brain cells?

Calling Matt Browne!!! Calling Matt Browne!!!

Not really. Memory is actually neurological activity that among other things depends on the physical properties of the neurons themselves and most importantly their connections to other neurons.
I reckon if you want to “transfer” memory from old to new cells you have to think about that exact memory while cells are being replaced, so that the new connections and cells adapt to the active thought and thus create memory.
You can not tranfsfer memory from an old cell to a new one because cells do not actually store memory themselves. Memory arises from the interconnected structure of the neurons and the resulting unique neurological activity.

That is what I think as a non expert.

Apparently, brain cells are not anything like the other cells in the body. They don’t replicate and die off the way skin cells do, for instance. It is not clear how memories are formed. When there is brain damage, such a severe stroke, the brain can often re-route the memories for walking and talking, as shown by brain scans.

Sometimes, memories seem to be destroyed, and cannot be recovered, in stroke victims, drug and alcohol abuse, and other forms of brain damage. For a long time, scientists believed that when brain cells die, they are simply lost forever, but there seems to be new evidence that it is possible that new brain cells do grow. There is nothing to show they contain “passed on” memories.

I suggest reading The Field if you would like to know some of the new information and insights on how memory works. A fascinating book, great for the layman.

every time you remember something from the past its saved again in a new brain cell, everything you do and see is saved in your brain even if you dont have ability to remember and find it all again. i guess if a cell dies and its containing info that you not remembered more than once then its lost. maybe thats an idea of how it works?

Long-term memory mostly relies on changes in existing neurons with its existing synaptic pathways (neurotransmitters and receptors) as well as new synapses in existing neurons which require gene expressions and protein synthesis. A key player in all of this is the hippocampus.

Occasionally new neurons are created using stem cells. We now know that this process called neurogenesis also happens in adult brains (in predominantly two regions of the brain and one is the hippocampus). See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurogenesis

The functional relevance of adult neurogenesis is uncertain, but there is some evidence that hippocampal adult neurogenesis is important for learning and memory. Studies have demonstrated that the act of learning itself is associated with increased neuronal survival.

Do old brain cells transfer memory to new brain cells?

I’m not entirely sure about that. I would speculate that repetitive learning could have such an effect. Suppose that only once in your life, say 10 years ago, you learned that the word Qualle is German and it means jellyfish. You never used or needed the word again. Now one neurobiological rule is ‘use it or lose it’. At some point most if not all synaptic changes will be gone. A new neuron will not have a copy of this particular piece of memory. Now suppose you have a German girlfriend who’s crazy about jellyfish. Calls her cat Qualle. You call her cat Qualle. It’s a funny name for a cat and you keep reminding yourself that the cat is actually called jellyfish. There’s lots of repetition. I could imagine that the jellyfish would encroach into some of your new neurons in your hippocampus.

@Zen_Again – Actually, nikipedia is the Fluther expert in neuroscience. Maybe he will find this question.

@mattbrowne Thanks buddy. To paraphrase good ol’ Doc Johnson, “The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.”

@BluRhino Thanks for the link to a great book, however, one can link to the author, or at the very least, wiki-shiti-pedia or its ilk. No need to promote the money-guzzler Amaz$n, IMO.

Thanks to @YARNLADY for the heads up and @mattbrowne for the shout-out (although I am a she, not a he). I think between @ragingloli, @YARNLADY, and @mattbrowne there isn’t a lot I can add. Let me just reiterate what you all have said:

The idea of old vs. new brain cells might not be relevant. There isn’t a lot of brain cell turnover, especially in the part of the brain that we think is responsible for storing long-term memories. (They are probably stored in the cerebral cortex, and sent there by way of the hippocampus—which as Matt pointed out does indeed have some new cells coming in fairly regularly.)

The idea of transferring information from old cells to new cells is also predicated on the assumption that memories are stored in specific cells. This is something called the Grandmother Cell Hypothesis: i.e., you have a specific cell that codes for a specific memory, like the memory of your grandmother. It was my understanding that this hypothesis had been discredited. But now that I look at the wikipedia page describing it, I see that the person who told me it had been discredited is cited there as an advocate for a competing position, so maybe he’s biased.

That said, I agree with him that it doesn’t really make sense for one cell to = one memory. It seems like the evidence favors something like what @ragingloli said: memories are probably stored as both a dynamic process and physical changes between cells that allow them to become closely associated with one another. As these changes are part of long-term memory in the cortex, which does not (as far as we know) undergo neurogenesis, I have to conclude that the answer to your question is no: old brain cells probably do not transfer memory to new brain cells because there are no new and old brain cells storing these memories.

I think, anyway.

@nikipedia – Thanks, my friend. Sorry about the he. I haven’t heard about the Grandmother Cell Hypothesis only the one without the “Cell” which makes a lot of sense too. Great answer!

Edit: Matt Browne in brainpower is like Chuck Norris in brawn. He is never mistaken, as in the case of @nikipedia he simply made a typo and missed the “s”. Actually, it was probably a fluther glitch. @mattbrowne is never wrong.

;-) Lurve ya guys.

Of course I’m wrong sometimes. Everyone is. But I guess if we added all the Zen variations from Zen to New_Zen all the way to Zen_Again and Zen_Season7 your lurve would break the sonic barrier!

WHAT THE HECK.