Re: Aberrant Anthropology
Alain DAGHER (alain@quince)
8 Jan 1995 21:16:59 GMT
Braxton (bsheaff@epix.net) wrote:
: I can understand how he might have skewed the brain eating. In
: Pychology experiments with planaria-flatworms-pretty dull creatures that
: live in streams under rocks, you can teach one a maze-just a simple one
: and then grind it up, and feed it to its friends and they know the maze.
: Before you start considering the benefits of being Jeffrey Dalmer--it
: doesn't work with humans. The digestion of the material is more complete
: and the blood-brain barrier keeps out foreign proteins that could be
: responsible for memory. Besides the flatworms friends aren't any more
: intelligent after they have their buddy for lunch--they just know more.
: The two ain't necessarily the same.
Do you have a reference for this experiment? Personally I don't buy
it.
As far as we know, the 'knowledge' of the maze is not stored in
specific molecules, but in circuits within the nervous system. This
information would invariably be destroyed by grinding the worm, and
even if it wasn't, I see no way for it to somehow pass into his
buddy's brain.
--
Best wishes,
Alain Dagher "De la musique avant toute chose"
Montreal Neurological Institute
E-Mail: alain@pet.mni.mcgill.ca -Paul Verlaine
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