TheBrainsMemoryCapacityMayBeTenTimes

GreaterThanWeThought
January21,2016|byBenTaub

photocredit:ResearchersnowbelievethehumanbrainmayhaveamemorycapacitycomparabletotheentireWorld
WideWeb.vitstudio/Shutterstock

Likeacomputer,thebrainhasastoragecapacitythatdetermineshowmuchmemoryitcanhold.
However,whilecomputingpowercanbeneatlymeasuredinbits,theamountofinformationthatthe
braincanprocessdependsuponthestrengthoftheelectricalsignalsthatarepassedbetween
neurons.Understandinghowthesesignalsaremediatedis,therefore,essentialifwearetodiscover
thebrainsoverallmemorycapacity.
Althoughaprecisemeasurementforthiscapacityhasneverbeenagreedupon,anewstudythat
appearedinthejournaleLifehassuggestedthatpreviousroughestimatesmayhavesignificantly
underestimatedthebrain'smemorystoragecapabilities.Infact,theysuggestourmemorycapacity
maybeasmuchastentimesgreaterthanwethought.
Neuronalcellscommunicatewithoneanotherviaappendagescalledaxonsanddendrites,withthe
formercarryingelectricalsignalsawayfromthecellbodyandthelatterconductingtheseimpulses
towardsthecellbody.Anaxonofoneneuronmeetswithadendriteofanotheratajunctioncalled
asynapse,thesizeofwhichdeterminesthestrengthofthesignalsthatcanbetransmitted.The
numberofdifferentsignalstrengthsthatcanbegeneratedateachsynapsedictateshowmuch

informationcanbeprocessed,whichmeansthebrainsoverallmemorycapacitydependsonthe
numberofsynapsesitcontainsandthenumberofpossiblesynapticstrengths.
Untilrecently,ithadbeenpresumedthatsynapsesexistedinarelativelylownumberofdifferent
sizes.However,thestudyauthorsdiscoveredsomethingthatchallengedthis:firsttheynoticedsome
axonsformedtwosynapseswithasingledendrite,andthatthesedifferedinsizebyaverysmall
amounttypicallyaroundeightpercent.

Synapticstrengthismuchmorevariablethanpreviouslythought,accordingtoanewstudy.vitstudio/Shutterstock

Thissuggeststhatsynapticsizecanvarybyveryprecisemeasures,andthatsignalstrengthscan
subsequentlybeveryintricatelycontrolled.Usingaprocesscalledserialsectionelectronmicroscopy
tocreatea3Dreconstructionofaportionofbraintissue,theteamidentified26differentpossible
synapticstrengths,whichmeanseachsynapseshouldbeabletogenerate4.7bitofmemory.This
isroughlytentimesmorethanhadpreviouslybeenthought.
Toregulatethisstrength,synapseschangesizeinresponsetotheintensityoftheinformationbeing
deliveredalongtheaxonaprocessknownassynapticplasticity.Thisoccursviaaninfluxof
calciumintotheneckofthedendrite,therebyincreasingthesurfaceareaofthesynapseand
allowingmoresignalstobetransmittedacrossthegap.
Sincethebraincontainsseveraltrillionsynapses,theresearchersbelievetheircalculationspointto
atrulystaggeringprocessingpower.StudycoauthorTerrySejnowskiexplainedinastatementthat
ournewmeasurementsofthebrain'smemorycapacityincreaseconservativeestimatesbyafactor
of10toatleastapetabyte,inthesameballparkastheWorldWideWeb,addingthatwemightbe
abletousethisinformationtoimprove