Memory and Information Storage in the Brain: A Molecular Perspective | Brandon Woods | TEDxBoston

Have you ever wondered how memories are formed, and how memory arises from the information rich context of our surroundings? For deep exploration into the cellular and molecular mechanisms that process and store information in the brain, neuroscientist Brandon J. Woods has prepared a succinct, yet compelling talk for your intellectual entertainment and enrichment. Through Brandon’s passion for molecular biology, and his unique talents to inspire and communicate, he is certain to provide you with an educationally motivating experience that will consume your curiosity for the wonders of memory formation and neuroscience.

[ernststravoblofeld]

I think he's trying to win some kind of bet over how much jargon he can cram into a talk. On that level, it's pretty impressive.

[vernonirasong]

Jargon and more jargon; I am illuminated by your eloquence!!

[spudraker]

Gatekeeping at its best keep up the good work brother!

[maxbrandmeyer]

I think this is the most fascinating area of research to date. It builds on almost every physical and mathematical idea we’ve ever produced as a society in one single concept: miRNA’s. Neuroplasticity may explain the organization of information, but it doesn’t explain the physical existence of it. Also, informational structures don’t explain concepts like consciousness, or more abstract ideas regarding the brain. Micro RNA’s might give us a new perspective on these long argued ideas about existence and the human condition. Im agnostic but bless this man for his plain and easily accessible presentation of the idea on micro RNAs. Accessibility is a huge part of spreading information and sparking interests because of our understanding of temporal difference learning, in which rewards that are closer in the future matter much more than rewards further away. The short and intuitive explanation given helps people get into these ideas in science and flourish within their fields of research. Again, bless this man 😁

[bantorio]

💙💙💙💙💙💙💙 ... omg ... this so intricate 'thing' has been so wonderfully explained ... and I can't help but be amazed ... ... ...!!!

[micharyter]

At 3:29 he claims that the mechanism of how memories are stored in the brain is the modification of synaptic structures. At first that sounds impressive, but is it true? I'm sceptical about that claim, does anybody know of a reliable source (e.g. a recent scientific paper) which confirms that? Or research which refutes this assertion?

[richardrobertson]

OK, synaptic activity is important in storing and retrieving information. But, what biochemical changes make up a memory? I'm not aware of any variety of biochemical changes that occur at a synapse which may play a part in transmitting colors, music, analytical data, experiences, etc. Is it the same old molecules that transmit touch and smell? What chemicals store the variety of stimuli that make up a complex stored thought? If I watch the Beatles perform, for example, what stores the music, the lyrics, the volume intensity, the noises of the crowd, etc.? Do we know if it is stored chemically, or is it stored with microelectronics or is there some combination of both? And, what else might be involved? Anatomy of the brain and the interconnecting pathways are certainly important to understand, but I think we're ready to understand so much more. I feel it is as though we are at the start of the industrial revolution in understanding memory. Someone now needs to discover memory's cotton gin, so to speak.

[conqmain]

he is teaching people who already understand what he is saying...

[midwestairway]

Does the morphology of the neuro synapses dictate the type of information stored ? The synaptic structure for a sound, is different from a one for visual memories? Different from the information about the sound and visual information, so when we think of a "cat" a part of the brain brings up the visual, and another the sound, and a third part of the brain makes these two pieces of information to be a cat, i know information in the brain is processed in an analog manner, but if we can figure out how the neurons configure themselves to store each type of information, that would be huge, also does the morphological structure of neurons translate to a specific type of information across all brains, or does each person's brain "codes" differently information ?

[markgoddard]

Yes, it’s simply amazing how this process of organising energy into a synaptic morphology happened just by chance. Go figure !!

[slvshy]

Ever advancing on the frontier of memory research! Invent a device to recall and project our distant past memories onto a screen before I die please.

[hikmathasanov]

Again, these are all theories and we don’t have the technology to prove this. The reality can possibly be something completely different. But people have to produce some theories so that they can be investigated if it does make sense or not. Some theories might take 100s of years to be proven or rejected.

The reality is, today nobody understands how it works and until it is fully understood, then we will take it purely unexplainable miracle.

Also think about dangers and risks associated fully understanding memory process. And this is another topic of TedX talk 😊

[Frenic]

Nothing is stored in your brain. Your memories are in the Ether.

[Adhil_parammel]

May be evolution find a way to give more prefferance to emotion associated memory because it facilitates survival better

[osmosisjones]

Why haven't we looked for chemical imprints on the cells because it could be transferred

[mrdankmemesbo]

I love the autism corner of the internet

[tbg]

Isn’t the correct answer to that ‘rhetorical’ question No?

[peta]

you should be a politician. You talked a lot but gave absolutely no insight into the brain-information-storage that this title announced.

[deepikarani]

I thought will Smith is explaining it from MIB 😂😂😂😂

[aryas]

How memories are stored and retrieved in case of a person with split personality disorder 🙄🙄