I'm a psychiatrist with over 39 years of postgraduate experience, in a fairly conventional practice--but I have a predilection for outside-the-box thinking. Psychiatrists, neurophysiologists, and others who study the brain habitually fall back on "neuroplasticity"--a vague umbrella term referring to the brain's evident ability to change, reorganize, or grow neural networks--to "explain" the phenomena of thought, memory, and learning. They do so without any proof that this is how these processes happen, nor any conception as to how they would generate thought. It's just the best available "explanation" they happen to have on hand.
What they're overlooking is the possibility that our brains might actually function like that familiar metaphorical "brain" that we confront in our day-to-day life: a computer! I propose that the brain utilizes our nucleic acids--DNA, and its more temporary partner RNA--to store memory, and to exercise digital processing much like computers do!
In May 2022, an article I wrote proposing this "neurodigital" model was peer-reviewed and published on the cover of Psychiatric Times--a tabloid freely distributed to 50,000 psychiatrists in the U.S. and Canada. It garnered little attention because modern psychiatry is more fixated on prescribing medications, and other "biological" treatments like electroconvulsive therapy, than going back to contemplation of thought and mind like they did in its bygone era. If the mind is actually a software entity based on information, then wouldn't it call for an intervention based on information as well--some sort of "psyche-therapy"!
In this podcast I offer a body of scientific evidence that supports this neurodigital model of thought, mind, and memory. I share biological evidence that supports the role of RNA in both thought and memory. I also share the amazing ex vivo utilization of DNA to execute digital computation, as well as a burgeoning industry that uses DNA for digital data storage.
However, I think that this model's most compelling feature is the intuitively satisfying manner in which it typifies the relationship of the mind to the brain. If you happen to think that it's ludicrous to think that nature could come up with digital processing--well, you're really underestimating life's patience, persistence, and ingenuity.
REFERENCES
1 Reber, P., (2010). “What Is the Memory Capacity of the Human Brain?” Scientific American, doi:10.1038/scientificamericanmind0510-70, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-memory-capacity/
2 Video Credit: Hye Yoon Park,Ph.D (2014). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MCf-6ItoZg
3 “DNA computing”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_computing
4 “DNA digital data storage”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_digital_data_storage
5 Alexis Bédécarrats, Shanping Chen, Kaycey Pearce, Diancai Cai and David L. Glanzman (2018). “RNA from Trained Aplysia Can Induce an Epigenetic Engram for Long-Term Sensitization in Untrained Aplysia”, eNeuro 14 May 2018, https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0038-18.2018
6 Wolpert, S. (2018). “UCLA Biologists ‘Transfer’ a Memory”, UCLA Newsroom https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-biologists-transfer-a-memory
7 Esmi L. Zajaczkowski, Timothy W. Bredy (2020). “Circular RNAs in the Brain: A Possible Role in Memory?”, The Neuroscientist Vol 27, Issue 5, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1177/10738584209
At my website Bringing Psyche Back to Psychiatry I have articles posted, and links to videos as well. My videos are also posted at my YouTube channel, with more social media connections to follow.
