Transfer of Acquired Information by Brain Extracts

Ungar, Georges; Irwin, Louis N.

doi:10.1038/214453a0

Cited by 41 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The clearest results were obtained with a high dose of extracts Ungar, 1967aUngar, , 1967bUngar & Irwin, 1967). In these experiments each recipient received the equivalent of many times his brain weight.…”

Section: B Dosementioning

confidence: 95%

Protein Synthesis and Memory

Chapouthier

1983

The Physiological Basis of Memory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: B Dosementioning

confidence: 95%

Protein Synthesis and Memory

Chapouthier

1983

The Physiological Basis of Memory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…"reversed" transfer (Nissen, Rf/ligaardPetersen, & Fjerdingstad, 1965), "inversion" (Rosenblatt & Miller, 1966), "antagonistic transfer" (Rucker & Halstead, 1967), and "reversal" (Ungar, 1967). In these studies there is less leaming in animals which receive a "trained" extract than in animals receiving control extract.…”

Section: Donorsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Support is given to the argument for specific transfer by numerous studies using a variety of training procedures (e.g., Fjerdingstad, Nissen, & R4Iigaard-Petersen, 1965;Rosenblatt & Miller, 1966;Ungar, 1967;and Dyal&Golub, 1968). A relatively difficult simultaneous visual pattern discrimination was used in the present study to provide evidence of specificity of transfer and extend research beyond the simpler learning studied previously.…”

Section: Donorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specific and general factors in biochemical transfer of memory

1969

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We found that injection of brain extract from light-trained donors significantly increased the turns to the light. This experiment was repeated in a large number of animals and a dose-response curve was established [24,30]. We also did similar experiments with left-right discrimination.…”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical transfer of learned behavior

Ungar

1970

Agents and Actions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The last twenty years brought about a radical change in our understanding of life processes. The main cause of this change has been the shift in emphasis from energy to information as the basic force which shapes and drives living systems. We know now that evolution is essentially an exercise in the manipulation of genetic information transmitted through numberless generations. What is even more important is that this information is encoded in molecular structures and represents instructions for sequences of chemical reactions.It would have been surprising if the spectacular successes of molecular genetics had not inspired speculations on other problems of biological information processing. It seems accepted today that the essential function of the nervous system is to process acquired information, to adapt responses to the changing conditions of the environment and to put out behavior integrated with past experience. Would it then be possible for acquired information to be stored and handled also in a molecular code? The first speculations concerning this possibility were published in the late forties [1, 2, 3] but no experimental approach to the problem was made until 1959 when HYD~N [4] made the first attempts at detecting some chemical correlates of learning. This work has been expanding in the last decade and its present state has been reviewed by HYDI~N [5], GLASSMAN [6] and BOOTH [7]. The general conclusion is that acquisition of information is associated with heightened RNA and protein metabolism, and perhaps with some more specific qualitative changes.A second approach to the problem has made use of the availability of inhibitors of the transcription of DNA into RNA (8-azaguanine, actinomycin D) and of the translation of RNA into protein (puromycin, cycloheximide). The overall impression is that these agents interfere with the fixation and, perhaps, retrieval of information, although they have no effect on fully consolidated memory traces. The problem has recently been reviewed by COHEN [8].A third method of attack, which is the subject of this review, consists in attempts at detecting the chemical correlates of learning by biological assay. In spite of considerable initial opposition, this approach made rapid advances during the last few years and seems at present the most likely to supply evidence for molecular coding in neural information processing. Bioassays for the molecular code of neural informationBiological assays have played a critical role in the discovery and study of most of the major biochemical systems. They were used whenever a chemical process was suspected but the nature of the substance involved was either unknown or inaccessible to the chemical or physical means of detection available at the time. We owe to bioassays the discovery of the hormones, vitamins and neurotransmitters, it seemed, therefore, logical to apply this method to the chemical correlates of learning.The principle is to induce a change in the behavior of donor animals by an appropriate input of information, make a c...

show abstract

Transfer of Acquired Information by Brain Extracts

Cited by 41 publications

References 4 publications

Protein Synthesis and Memory

Protein Synthesis and Memory

Specific and general factors in biochemical transfer of memory

Chemical transfer of learned behavior

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About