The Brain 119 a3 I Sy . ee ON, RUE cris tte ‘> . ie os ta . SS == = ) ss “iy he, yO * oO =a, oO SS F : ° J Y Postsynaptic cell Lan 00. SS Ga rl = f ,. yr. Oo *) | a “eh ccceecet oO S| ; a | zs Receptor 6 Synapse has a similar structure. It is a flat protein laid down as a spiral on the outside of nerve cells. The theory is that cell firing causes myelination, which permanently imprints the memory. The alternate class of theory proposes memory is encoded at a much smaller scale. Neurons are quite complex structures in their own right. Inside each neuron is a lattice of proteins, which forms a skeleton. Part of that skeleton provides structural integrity to the neuron, while other elements provide control and motility. It is this control part of the skeleton that people believe might encodememory. A 2012 paper by Travis Craddock and Jack Tuszynski of the University of Alberta, and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff of the University of Arizona proposes a protein called CaMKII binds to the cytoskeleton in 32 different configurations, providing a binary data encoding. It is an elegant idea but it also relies on your believing their model for quantum neuron processing which is still highly controversial. If proven, they are my top Nobel Prize tip for this decade! Photographic Memory Until recently conventional wisdom held that true photographic memory was a myth and the few people claiming to have it really used some sort of mnemonic memory technique to selectively memorize things. The HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015809