Lesson plan
Memory transfer
Memory transfer was a biological process proposed by James V. McConnell and others in the 1960s. Memory transfer proposes a chemical basis for memory termed memory RNA which can be passed down through flesh instead of an intact nervous system. Since RNA encodes information and living cells produce and modify RNA in reaction to external events, it might also be used in neurons to record stimuli. This was proposed as an explanation for the results of McConnell's experiments in which planarians retained memory of acquired information after regeneration. In McConnell's experiments, he classically conditioned planarians to contract their bodies upon exposure to light by pairing it with an electric shock. The planarians retained this acquired information after being sliced and regenerated, even after multiple slicings to produce a planarian where none of the original trained planarian was present. The same held true after the planarians were ground up and fed to untrained cannibalistic planarians, usually Dugesia dorotocephala. As the nervous system was fragmented but the nucleic acids were not, this seemed to indicate the existence of memory RNA.…
Article summary
Memory transfer was a biological process proposed by James V. McConnell and others in the 1960s. Memory transfer proposes a chemical basis for memory termed memory RNA which can be passed down through flesh instead of an intact nervous system. Since RNA encodes information and living cells produce and modify RNA in reaction to external events, it might also be used in neurons to record stimuli. This was proposed as an explanation for the results of McConnell's experiments in which planarians retained memory of acquired information after regeneration. In McConnell's experiments, he classically conditioned planarians to contract their bodies upon exposure to light by pairing it with an electric shock. The planarians retained this acquired information after being sliced and regenerated, even after multiple slicings to produce a planarian where none of the original trained planarian was present. The same held true after the planarians were ground up and fed to untrained cannibalistic planarians, usually Dugesia dorotocephala. As the nervous system was fragmented but the nucleic acids were not, this seemed to indicate the existence of memory RNA.…
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.