Many worm species have the remarkable ability to regenerate organs and other body parts -- even their brains. In 2013, while conducting research to find out more about how animals store and process information, biologists at Tufts University used planarian flatworms to study where memories are stored. After using light to teach the worms where they could find food, the scientists cut off creatures' heads. As expected, the worms completely regrew their heads in just two weeks. Amazingly, the researchers found that those worms still remembered how to find the food. In fact, the worms with new heads had memories as accurate as the control group of worms, which hadn’t been beheaded.
Heads up:
- The researchers admitted that they don't yet understand how these results could be possible, but they think that the worms' memories must have been stored in other body cells and imprinted onto the new brain as it regenerated.
- In the past, researchers have concentrated on brain studies to investigate how memories are maintained. Tufts biologist Michael Levin said that these results may point researchers in a whole new direction.
- The answer may come from epigenetic research, which studies how external or environmental factors can switch genes on and off, effectively altering the transcriptional potential of a cell.