Cryogenics and the human brain

[Mick]

How does the brain store memories? If sometime in the future they can revive cryogenic bodies as suggested in the attached article, would they revive a body that has a blank memory and would that body have to learn just like a new born? Or would it be just like waking from a deep sleep?
Surly our memories are what make us, us so what would be the point of reviving a cryogenic body if our essence memories have decayed.
It would seem from searching on the web that we still don’t know or agree on how long term memories are stored in the human brain so answering these questions would be difficult.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-26/cryonics-founder-dies/2810076

[renormalised]

All they know about memory in the brain is that the brain processes info and stores it. Where, they don't really know. Only that certain areas of the brain process certain info and that certain functions of the brain are in certain areas.

The brain is basically a very complex computer and information retrieval device. It's most likely that memory storage and access/processing is happening at a quantum level in the neurons and glia....within the microtubules and/or at even lower levels of biology. It wouldn't surprise me if consciousness itself is a quantum mechanical process of some kind, or at least works on that level in conjunction with the rest of the brain. Given the way the quantum world works, it might be entirely separate from the brain/body itself. Information doesn't necessarily need a container in order to be encoded. The information itself is the container. Just so long as there is energy, information can be encoded onto it. Even there, the information itself can be the energy needed to carry itself. Bit of a circular process:):)

[adman]

uh-oh Carl - you haven't been reading too much Deepak Chopra have you...?;) :lol:

Memory is a very strange thing indeed. It seems to be very distributed - there is no one part of the brain that is solely responsible. You can have major disturbances to the physical structure of the brain, and still retain most if not all of your memory, but on the other hand, seemingly small problems can have huge effects on memory :shrug:. I would love to know just how many memories we could cram in there - what is your brains capacity??

Adam

[GrahamL]

Interesting read.

Though maybe its a stretch by the terminology used to consider
our frozen friends to be Patients as they are quite likely dead .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient



http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061113152500AAggUga
Last post is pretty funny:lol:

[marki]

Yep the huge loss of viable cells would put paid to mummies walking around anytime soon. The same goes with frozen gamets in which typically 50 -60% will be dead when thawed out. I think the next step in retaining someones memory/thoughts will have to be through electronic means. Would you still be present? I dont think so. We all have a used by date encoded in our DNA via telomeric sequences at the ends of the chromosomes. These are shortend every time replication takes place until there is none left and the cell dies.

Mark

[Mick]

Total recall that...

Seriously it is amazing what can be achieved without a brain.
http://www.reef.crc.org.au/publications/explore/feat47.html

[renormalised]

Nope, never read any of his books at all. I'm actually very serious about this. No one has ever been able to point to any part of the brain and say..."there, that's where your memory and consciousness resides". The reason being is that they've been looking at this from completely the wrong direction. Biologist still don't like to admit and very few actually understand that at the very heart of all the biochemical and other processes that occur within the body is a fundamental quantum mechanical base. They understand hardly anything about the function of the microtubules in the neurons and glia within the brain itself, let alone their function anywhere else. They're more than small enough for quantum mechanical processes to be significant in their function.

You can make jokes and laugh all you like about it, but that doesn't make it any less serious when it comes to how the brain works. They basically know sweet nothing about it in reality. What they do know is nothing more than knowing how a computer is put together on a basic level and how some of the programming works.




Like I said, they actually know very little about memory and even less about consciousness. If they did, we'd know a hell of a lot more about what it is to be human and most head shrinks would be out of a job.

[Mick]

Carl,
That’s exactly what I found when looking for information about how our memory works, not a lot. :hi:
It is amazing how little that we know about the workings of the human brain. We know lots about psychology, but not how our memory actually works.

[leon]

Well it seems to me, and i am not very knowledgeable on the subject, far from it.

They freeze sperm, and that in itself has all the necessary functions to become a person once thawed out and placed into the woman.

So although they are super tiny people, which at one stage were frozen for up to many years, all the functions and brain power come to life.

I probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but then again i am no scientist either. :shrug:

Leon :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Well don't feel bad Leon. We're in the same boat. The closest I got to understand Cryogenics and the human brain (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=748005#post748005) is a megaslurpy brain freeze at the local maccas... it's bad for you ;) :P

[cfranks]

What facinates me about memory is the 'search engine' used to retrieve memories. I met a guy in Myers once that I had last seen/heard from 40 years earlier in high school. Up popped all the relevant memories virtually instantaneously. From where and what search argument was used? We certainly still have a lot to learn about the old brain.

Charles

[leon]

Thanks for the life ring Marc. :thumbsup: :lol: :lol:

Leon:thumbsup: