Chemistry and emotions separate the human brain from AI
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
A new scientific model argues that binary code, the 0s and 1s underlying every computer, cannot fully explain how memory works.
Researchers Gerard Marx of MX Biotech Ltd. and Chaim Gilon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem base their model on molecular and cellular evidence.
Their theory, called the Tripartite Mechanism of Memory, proposes that three biological components, not binary switches, are what generate genuine memory.
Unlike a silicon chip storing information as binary states, the tripartite model proposes that memory arises through three separate biological elements interacting.
These elements include brain cells, particularly astrocytes, interacting with neurons, along with the molecular environment surrounding those individual cells directly.
A third component involves specific chemicals, such as metal ions, neurotransmitters, and gliotransmitters, circulating continuously throughout the brain's living tissue.
The researchers suggest that living brains may do more than simply transmit electrical signals between individual neurons scattered across tissue.
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
They may also write and read certain kinds of information chemically, a process with no clear equivalent inside a silicon processor.
Astrocytes, abundant brain cells that interact closely with neurons, occupy a particularly important place within this newly proposed scientific model.
Marx and Gilon propose that clusters of astrocytes participate in processing cognitive information alongside neurons and the surrounding cellular environment.
A central part of their argument holds that biological memories are never simply pieces of stored logical information by themselves.
They argue that biological memory carries an emotional dimension that no binary code stored inside a computer's memory bank can replicate.
