4 ms·

"Every memory begins with tiny changes inside the brain. A discovery that helped explain those changes has earned neuroscientist Oswald Steward one of science’s

"Every memory begins with tiny changes inside the brain. A discovery that helped explain those changes has earned neuroscientist Oswald Steward one of science’s highest honors. Steward received the 2026 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, a USD 1 million award and one of science’s most prestigious awards, for research that transformed scientists’ understanding of how the brain learns and stores memories." And that's what it took. One comment on hackernews and the prize was retracted. HN at its best! ;)

coldtea 4mo ago
What's funnier is the implication under which the "objection" is stated, as if those researchers didn't/couldn't know it.
christophilus 4mo ago
Well, it does seem that memories may be embedded in the nervous system as well as the brain, so I don’t think the OP is wrong. You sometimes hear of heart transplant patients having other people’s memories / preferences. So, it’s not good evidence, but it’s a possibility.
- Earw0rm 4mo ago
  That's quite a leap. The idea that _semantic_ memories are encoded so as to be transmissible via blobs of neural tissue stretches plausibility.
  - embedding-shape 4mo ago
    It doesn't seem so implausible: Personality Changes Associated with Organ Transplants (https://www.mdpi.com/2673-3943/5/1/12 https://www.mdpi.com/2673-3943/5/1/12) > Personality changes have been reported following organ transplantation. Most commonly, such changes have been described among heart transplant recipients. [...] A cross-sectional study was conducted in which 47 participants (23 heart recipients and 24 other organ recipients) completed an online survey. In this study, 89% of all transplant recipients reported personality changes after undergoing transplant surgery, which was similar for heart and other organ recipients. Who knows the cause though, could be anything I suppose, not necessarily that "memory sits in tissue".
    - Earw0rm 4mo ago
      It's massive, hugely traumatic surgery, taking the patient past what was considered the point of death a century ago, bringing them back alive, and all with the aid of some of the most powerful drugs in modern medicine's arsenal. And if your heart is needing transplantation in the first place, you'll be running far below optimal for blood O2 and a dozen other things. It'd be more surprising if it didn't result in significant change.
      - fragmede 4mo ago
        > if your heart is needing transplantation in the first place, you'll be running far below optimal for blood O2 and a dozen other things. that's not obvious on the face of it from a mechanical standpoint. I'd you're sick enough to need one, wouldn't we just give you a mechanical temporary replacement, and keep that one going as high as possible instead as low as possible?
        Earw0rm 4mo ago
        By the time you're that sick, you've likely had years of compromised health. That's going to affect personality to some extent.
        rcxdude 4mo ago
        AFAIK mechanical hearts can be prone to creating blood clots and can put more stress on other parts of the body, so it's not necessarily the safest option to just run it flat out.
    - mr_toad 4mo ago
      Just 47 participants in the online study and a wide variety of psychological issues: “depression, anxiety, psychosis, and sexual dysfunction.”. A few of them found religion. Is anyone surprised that surviving traumatic surgery with a long debilitating recovery time causes mental stress?
      - embedding-shape 4mo ago
  - deleted 4mo ago
    [deleted]
  - fragmede 4mo ago
    what do we know about memory other we think in our brains so that's where consciousness must be stored? What do we know about memory that makes that necessarily a leap? What is so special about semantic memory?
- dboreham 4mo ago
  Er no. That doesn't happen.
piskov 4mo ago
Memory stored in RNA is a known thing: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711021v1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711021v1 https://www.sciencealert.com/worms-can-share-memories-of-a-bad-meal-by-swapping-fragments-of-rna https://www.sciencealert.com/worms-can-share-memories-of-a-b...

coldtea 4mo ago

What's funnier is the implication under which the "objection" is stated, as if those researchers didn't/couldn't know it.

christophilus 4mo ago

Well, it does seem that memories may be embedded in the nervous system as well as the brain, so I don’t think the OP is wrong. You sometimes hear of heart transplant patients having other people’s memories / preferences. So, it’s not good evidence, but it’s a possibility.

Earw0rm 4mo ago
That's quite a leap. The idea that _semantic_ memories are encoded so as to be transmissible via blobs of neural tissue stretches plausibility.
- embedding-shape 4mo ago
  It doesn't seem so implausible: Personality Changes Associated with Organ Transplants (https://www.mdpi.com/2673-3943/5/1/12 https://www.mdpi.com/2673-3943/5/1/12) > Personality changes have been reported following organ transplantation. Most commonly, such changes have been described among heart transplant recipients. [...] A cross-sectional study was conducted in which 47 participants (23 heart recipients and 24 other organ recipients) completed an online survey. In this study, 89% of all transplant recipients reported personality changes after undergoing transplant surgery, which was similar for heart and other organ recipients. Who knows the cause though, could be anything I suppose, not necessarily that "memory sits in tissue".
  - Earw0rm 4mo ago
    It's massive, hugely traumatic surgery, taking the patient past what was considered the point of death a century ago, bringing them back alive, and all with the aid of some of the most powerful drugs in modern medicine's arsenal. And if your heart is needing transplantation in the first place, you'll be running far below optimal for blood O2 and a dozen other things. It'd be more surprising if it didn't result in significant change.
    - fragmede 4mo ago
      > if your heart is needing transplantation in the first place, you'll be running far below optimal for blood O2 and a dozen other things. that's not obvious on the face of it from a mechanical standpoint. I'd you're sick enough to need one, wouldn't we just give you a mechanical temporary replacement, and keep that one going as high as possible instead as low as possible?
      - Earw0rm 4mo ago
        By the time you're that sick, you've likely had years of compromised health. That's going to affect personality to some extent.
      - rcxdude 4mo ago
        AFAIK mechanical hearts can be prone to creating blood clots and can put more stress on other parts of the body, so it's not necessarily the safest option to just run it flat out.
  - mr_toad 4mo ago
    Just 47 participants in the online study and a wide variety of psychological issues: “depression, anxiety, psychosis, and sexual dysfunction.”. A few of them found religion. Is anyone surprised that surviving traumatic surgery with a long debilitating recovery time causes mental stress?
    - embedding-shape 4mo ago
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
- fragmede 4mo ago
  what do we know about memory other we think in our brains so that's where consciousness must be stored? What do we know about memory that makes that necessarily a leap? What is so special about semantic memory?
dboreham 4mo ago
Er no. That doesn't happen.

piskov 4mo ago

Memory stored in RNA is a known thing: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711021v1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711021v1 https://www.sciencealert.com/worms-can-share-memories-of-a-bad-meal-by-swapping-fragments-of-rna https://www.sciencealert.com/worms-can-share-memories-of-a-b...