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Abstract
According to the commonly accepted opinion, memory engrams are formed and stored at the level of neural networks due to a change in the strength of synaptic connections between neurons. This hypothesis of synaptic plasticity (HSP), formulated by Donald Hebb in the 1940s, continues to dominate the directions of experimental studies and the interpretations of experimental results in the field. The universal acceptance of the HSP has transformed it from a hypothesis into an incontrovertible theory. In this article, I show that the entire body of experimental and clinical data obtained in studies of long-term memory in mammals and humans is inconsistent with the HSP. Instead, these data suggest that long-term memory is formed and stored at the intracellular level where it is reliably protected from ongoing synaptic activity, including pathological epileptic activity. It seems that the generally accepted HSP became a serious obstacle to understanding the mechanisms of memory and that progress in this field requires rethinking this doctrine and shifting experimental efforts toward exploring the intracellular mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuri I Arshavsky
- BioCircuits Institute, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
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Cancellieri E, Bel Hadj Brahim H, Ben Nasr J, Ben Fraj T, Boussoffara R, Di Matteo M, Mercier N, Marnaoui M, Monaco A, Richard M, Mariani GS, Scancarello O, Zerboni A, di Lernia S. A late Middle Pleistocene Middle Stone Age sequence identified at Wadi Lazalim in southern Tunisia. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3996. [PMID: 35304482 PMCID: PMC8933421 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07816-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The late Middle Pleistocene, starting at around 300 ka, witnessed large-scale biological and cultural dynamics in hominin evolution across Africa including the onset of the Middle Stone Age that is closely associated with the evolution of our species—Homo sapiens. However, archaeological and geochronological data of its earliest appearance are scarce. Here we report on the late Middle Pleistocene sequence of Wadi Lazalim, in the Sahara of Southern Tunisia, which has yielded evidence for human occupations bracketed between ca. 300–130 ka. Wadi Lazalim contributes valuable information on the spread of early MSA technocomplexes across North Africa, that likely were an expression of large-scale diffusion processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emanuele Cancellieri
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
| | | | - Jaafar Ben Nasr
- Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Université de Kairouan, Kairouan, Tunisia
| | - Tarek Ben Fraj
- Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Université de Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia.,Laboratoire de Cartographie Géomorphologique des Milieux, des Environnements et des Dynamiques (CGMED), Université de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
| | | | - Martina Di Matteo
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Norbert Mercier
- Archéosciences-Bordeaux, UMR 6034 CNRS-Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Pessac, France
| | - Marwa Marnaoui
- Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Université de Kairouan, Kairouan, Tunisia
| | - Andrea Monaco
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Maïlys Richard
- Archéosciences-Bordeaux, UMR 6034 CNRS-Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Pessac, France.,Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
| | - Guido S Mariani
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
| | - Olivier Scancarello
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Andrea Zerboni
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra "A. Desio", Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
| | - Savino di Lernia
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.,School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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