Encoding of Memory in the Neuron

Abstract

The specific effect which brain extract from conditioned rats has on the behavior of naive rats into which the extract is injected, suggests that (a) there exists a set of genetically determined neurons whose interconnections are invariant from subject to subject, that (b) each of these neurons has associated with it a unique molecular identification code, and that (c) these molecular codes retain their identifying properties when replicated as messenger RNA and polypeptide. With these inferences as a starting point, an attempt is made to shed light on other phenomena, including embryological growth of neural structures, evolution of instinct, priming of neurons, cross-referencing within cell assemblies, individual and structural memory traces, and the ubiquitous “magical number.”