Samuel Butler and human long term memory: is the cupboard bare?
Memory studies in biological systems distinguish three informational processes that are generally sequential--production/acquisition, storage, and retrieval/use. Identification of DNA as a storage form for hereditary information accelerated progress in that field. Assuming the path of successful elucidation in one memory field (heredity) to be heuristic for elucidation in another (brain), then progress in neuroscience should accelerate when a storage form is identified. In the 19th century Ewald Hering and Samuel Butler held that heredity and brain memory both involved the storage of information and that the two forms of storage were the same. Hering specified storage as 'molecular vibrations' but, while making a fuller case, Butler was less committal. In the 20th century, the ablation studies of Karl Lashley failed to identify unique sites for storage of brain information, and Donald Hebb's 'synaptic plasticity' hypothesis of distributed storage over a neuronal network won favor. In the 21st century this has come under attack, and the idea that brain and hereditary information are stored as DNA is advocated. Thus, albeit without attribution, Butler's idea is reinstated. Yet, while the case is still open, the synaptic plasticity and DNA hypotheses have problems. Two broad alternatives remain on the table. Long term memory is located: (1) in the brain, either in some other macromolecular form (e.g. protein, lipid) or in some sub-molecular form (e.g. quantum computing and 'brain as holograph' hypotheses) or (2) outside the brain. The suggestion of the medieval physician Avicenna that the brain 'cupboard' is bare--i.e. the brain is a perceptual, not storage, organ--is consistent with a mysterious 'universe as holograph' model. Understanding how Butler came to contribute could be heuristic for future progress in a field fraught with 'fractionation and disunity'.
Forsdyke
Donald R
DR
Department of Biochemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L3N6. forsdyke@queensu.ca
D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D019295:Computational Biology; D004247:DNA / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology; D011582:Psychological Theory
D004247:DNA