Memory’s Possible Virus Origins, And Its Interesting Role In History
A viral protein, Ancient Roman memory palaces, and the trouble with remembering
“Millions of years ago, the organism that evolved to become us humans was infected with a viral protein. According to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, it is quite likely that this virus endowed us with our long-term memory function.”
— Press Release From University Of Copenhagen
In many ways in our present day, memory has become secondary to us.
It’s delegated to devices. Personally, I found myself calling in aid from Google when I couldn’t remember an actor’s name during a conversation recently. And I’m not unique.
How many times have you reached for your smart phone to avoid that painful “senior moment” when the right information escapes you? In fact, the word “memory” has become so integrated with devices, we use it as a reference to distinguish their speed and power.
Like normal gifts and blessings, our thoughts generally only go to human memory when it’s impaired or gone. Words like Alzheimer’s and dementia terrify us. And with good reason; a life without our often-neglected memory is like going on a ship with no rudder.
Despite its acknowledged power when gone, we still spend little time thinking about it due to our fast ability to search out data. But for premodern people it was different. Human memory, not Google, was a superpower to be cultivated and cherished.
Science has also taken a deeper look at memory too. Not just the function, but its origin. Surprisingly, the research has led some scientists to believe the first iterations of memory could be the result of a viral infection.
If so, its emergence starts long before the world as we recognize it.
Neurons, Proteins, and ARC
“The viral infection has probably been crucial for our ability to store memory. That our development as a species has been so impacted by a virus is fairly wild,”
— Christian Parsbæk Pedersen, Press Release From University Of Copenhagen
In their research paper, The Capsid Domain of Arc Changes Its Oligomerization Propensity through Direct Interaction with the NMDA Receptor, Doctoral student Christian Pedersen, and his associates Lau Dalby Nielsen, Simon Erlendsson, and Kaare Teilum take a deep look into a protein associated with memory.
They explain “neuronal Activity-Regulated Cytoskeleton-Associated protein (Arc) is a regulator of both synaptic scaling and dendritic remodeling.” This protein is also “essential for consolidation of memory in vivo.”
Although its entire function is unknown, Pedersen in the press release mentions mice lose their long-term memory when it’s removed. Arc is also tied to Alzheimer’s disease. The study says the protein’s “expression is particularly enriched in…neurons responsible for learning and memory formation.”
Oddly, Arc also functions like proteins found in viruses and has some of the same structural elements. According to the researchers:
“The Arc protein is still fully capable of forming viral-like capsids and facilitating intercellular mRNA transfer between adjacent cells much like functional retroviruses such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human T-lymphotropic viruses…”
Pedersen and his associates think Arc derived from a virus that infected some organism long before humanity (perhaps two hundred million years ago), which passed on the protein through evolution. Now, it resides in us and many other mammals.
However, Pedersen says this isn’t unusual. Arc is just one of a hundred proteins which came from a viral origin in our genome.
Although humanity became uniquely aware of memory and the mind, even in cultures long ago.
Egypt, Rome, And The Mind
Damian Pang at Psychology Today notes some of the oldest medical texts in the world come from Ancient Egypt.
In fact, the first written reference to the brain is in hieroglyphs on papyrus that’s thought to be three thousand years old. It also shows an understanding of the brain’s anatomy and some function:
They understood one side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body.
There was also comprehension that brain and spinal cord interact, and damage to the connection can cause paralysis.
The text even has a description of a brain injury that resulted in a loss of speech.
While the Romans weren’t as apt to dissect a brain, they did put a lot of effort into cultivating the mind — particularly, memory. Bettina Bergmann in her scholarly article The Roman House as Memory Theater, says memory was extremely important in a society where much of the populace was illiterate.
But the upper crust of society also placed much value in memory too. A good Roman was schooled in several fields, but many revolved around presentation, speech, and rhetoric. Think politics. Memory was crucial in dialectic pursuits, whether giving a stump speech or parrying attacks in a debate.
Cicero even declared its importance. In fact, Bergmann says this great speaker and many other Romans writing about oratory described a helpful memory device. They called it a memory palace.
Bergmann says in Roman times, the “house was perceived as an extension of the self.” So, it was intimately known. Therefore, one could easily visualize rooms in their home, which became useful as a tool.
In this skill, you’d imagine things you’d want to remember within various spaces of the house — making the verbal visual. Conversely, memory could also be used as a weapon.
Damnatio memoriae destroyed the memory of a citizen for a crime or transgression. According to Bergmann, it could even involve destroying that individual’s home since it was an extension of the person. Consequently, their memory was removed from public conscience.
The Egyptians also took part in this act as well, destroying the face on Akhenaten’s sarcophagus and striking his name from records for declaring there was only one god. Although there is something scarier than loss of memory or damnatio memoriae.
The Terror Of Unlimited Memory
While a good memory is undoubtedly an asset, even this can become a bad thing when it reaches unlimited ability. Furthermore, there’s a living example. Scientists studying Jill Price claim she has an “autobiographical” memory.
In other words, it’s nearly unlimited. This middle-aged woman can remember everyday of her life clearly, back until she was fourteen.
In her interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, Price claims it’s less of a superpower and more of a curse. Not only does she remember the day, but her emotions from every interaction retain the same power. So, time literally can’t heal her wounds. At times she says she “lives in the past,” and it’s “paralyzing.”
Fortunately for us, that isn’t one of our regular memory problems. But then again, it may be quite soon.
The History Of Memory, And The Trouble With Remembering
While we often take our gift of recall for granted, it likely has a strange beginning, and an even more interesting future. Proteins associated with memory share many characteristics of a virus. If related, it may be the most fortunate viral infection which ever took place on the planet.
This creation of memory transformed a brain which we eventually inherited into something that could build upon the past. Great cultures were a result, and they noticed this power of the mind.
The Egyptians studied the brain’s structure and function.
The Romans worked to develop its power of thought and recall.
The latter turned memory into a fine art, translating verbal thoughts into mental pictures. Furthermore, it became a treasured skill of both the elite and the illiterate masses. After all, it was the best tool available.
Now, there’s a better one. While memory is still valuable, we have an impressive pocket device with much of the world’s knowledge quickly retrievable. Let’s call it the ultimate crutch.
Why take Cicero’s advice on memory when a device can do it for us? Inevitably, this can lead to the worst of both worlds: having a weak ability to recall, while at the same time having a machine that never lets us forget. Talk about trouble with remembering.
It sounds like an episode of The Twilight Zone, but it could be our eventual future. Hopefully, memory doesn’t take on the terrible qualities of a virus once again.
-Originally posted on Medium 8/18/23