Biochemical Memory

[blike]

I just read a short article (here) that says "The Discovery Health Channel will air a documentary Saturday (Jul. 19) called "Transplanting Memories" which delves into the eerie mystery of organ transplant recipients who experience memories of the organ donor."

 

I did a little research and I found there is a small body of evidence that exists for biochemical memory in flatworms.

 

McConnell, J. V. (1962). Memory transfer through cannibalism in planarians. Journal of Neuropsychiatry, 3, 42-48.

 

McConnell, J. V., Jacobson, A. L., & Kimble, D. P. (1959). The effects of regeneration upon retention of a conditioned response in the planarian. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 52, 1-5.

 

 

Anyone ever heard of this?

[Skye]

I remember reading about this when I was a kid, in an old book about animals. It sounded so cool then

 

From what I know other researchers couldn't replicate the results. At the time DNA and RNA were crazy new things, so these were considered a possible chemicals in which memories could be stored. As more was discovered there seemed to be no way for memories to be stored simply in molecules. Consideing the results weren't replicated it's not taken seriously anymore, afaik.

[spottedlizard20]

I have seen something about this a while back. It had something to do with a heart transplant patient who knew things about the donor that only the donor and his family would have known. I've also heard of people who, after having had an organ transplant, exhibited personality traits like the donor, though the two individuals had never met before. I've always thought it was kind of interesting but I never really paid too close attention to it.

[blike]

Yea, supposedly thats what the discovery health documentary will cover on sat.