<p>I know people who can instantaneously remember many events from 50 years ago. Moreover, there are savants who have memorized thousands of books and can instantly read off paragraphs from any page of these books, what is the molecular mechanism of long term memory storage that satisfied two competing requirements:</p>
<ol>
<li>Instantaneous retrieval</li>
<li>Stable long term storage</li>
</ol>
<p>I see that there are number of school of thoughts. C.R. Gallistel is of the opinion that plastic synapsis cannot account for storage <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364661317300852" rel="nofollow noreferrer">1</a>. He argues for storage in the cellular matter akin to DNA. I am looking for comprehensive and up to date readings on this topic.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-16T08:34:15.083Z
Welcome. The molecular mechanism... Even at the macroscopic structural level this answer can fill libraries. Can you narrow down the question? You can give more focus to your question best by adding your own background research you've done so far and telling us where your search stranded.
AliceD
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-18T13:09:04.250Z
I have added more details. I am not an expert in the field. I am a computer scientist. If you are aware of specific topics in this question, then please share references. I will read them and improve my question.
sidharth chhabra
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-19T06:07:30.940Z
Remember that there are plenty of AI applications done with neural networks that only rely on weights between neurons to "remember" things. You'd have to buy various "efficiency" arguments that that is not enough for real brains and that one needs some intra-neuron coding of things like numbers (from the external world). Furthermore, you'd have to buy that that is the main mechanism,
got trolled too much this week
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-19T06:10:40.400Z
If you look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encoding_(memory)#Molecular_Perspective it doesn't even mention such edgy theories, only the molecular mechanisms for LTP etc.
got trolled too much this week
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-19T06:16:05.840Z
Galistel's similar paper in RTSB is labelled an "opinion piece". https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2017.0119 And if you look at the pdf version of his paper in *Trends* (that you've linked to), it's also labelled "Opinion".
got trolled too much this week
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-19T06:24:05.910Z
In general, hypotheses of sub-neuronal mechanisms for much of what happens in terms or memory or cognition are regarded with skepticism; see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrated_objective_reduction#Microtubule_computation
got trolled too much this week
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-19T06:38:11.147Z
Note that Gallistel [is a psychologist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Randy_Gallistel), not a neuroscientist.
got trolled too much this week
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-19T18:32:09.123Z
Here's an example of an ANN that learns to count things https://stanford.edu/~jlmcc/papers/FangZhouChenMcC18Count.pdf No need for any intra-cell counters.
got trolled too much this week
<long-term-memory>
Long term memories - the molecular mechanism?
sidharth chhabra
# Long term memories - the molecular mechanism?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-12-14)

I know people who can instantaneously remember many events from 50 years ago. Moreover, there are savants who have memorized thousands of books and can instantly read off paragraphs from any page of these books, what is the molecular mechanism of long term memory storage that satisfied two competing requirements:

1. Instantaneous retrieval
2. Stable long term storage

I see that there are number of school of thoughts. C.R. Gallistel is of the opinion that plastic synapsis cannot account for storage [1](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364661317300852). He argues for storage in the cellular matter akin to DNA. I am looking for comprehensive and up to date readings on this topic.

**Tags:** long-term-memory

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Welcome. The molecular mechanism... Even at the macroscopic structural level this answer can fill libraries. Can you narrow down the question? You can give more focus to your question best by adding your own background research you've done so far and telling us where your search stranded.  
> **username_0**: I have added more details. I am not an expert in the field. I am a computer scientist. If you are aware of specific topics in this question, then please share references. I will read them and improve my question.  
> **username_2**: Remember that there are plenty of AI applications done with neural networks that only rely on weights between neurons to "remember" things. You'd have to buy various "efficiency" arguments that that is not enough for real brains and that one needs some intra-neuron coding of things like numbers (from the external world). Furthermore, you'd have to buy that that is the main mechanism,  
> **username_2**: If you look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encoding_(memory)#Molecular_Perspective it doesn't even mention such edgy theories, only the molecular mechanisms for LTP etc.  
> **username_2**: Galistel's similar paper in RTSB is labelled an "opinion piece". https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2017.0119 And if you look at the pdf version of his paper in *Trends* (that you've linked to), it's also labelled "Opinion".  
> **username_2**: In general, hypotheses of sub-neuronal mechanisms for much of what happens in terms or memory or cognition are regarded with skepticism; see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrated_objective_reduction#Microtubule_computation  
> **username_2**: Note that Gallistel [is a psychologist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Randy_Gallistel), not a neuroscientist.  
> **username_2**: Here's an example of an ANN that learns to count things https://stanford.edu/~jlmcc/papers/FangZhouChenMcC18Count.pdf No need for any intra-cell counters.  

---

## 0 answers

