No.159 Seminar ： Memory as an essential component for being “humans”: the study using fruit flies to uncover the underlying molecular mechanism –
- Yukinori Hirano (The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research / Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine)
- 2019/01/15 4:30pm
- The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research (Research Administration Building 1F)
- English(This seminar is open for students and researchers at Kyoto Univ.)
Summary
In taxonomy, our species are called as Homo sapiens. This organism, which has a genetic information of Homo sapiens, will become “humans” by living in the complex human society through learning from the experiences of our own and the others, and the history of the past. Because the learned information is stored in our brain, which is known as memory, we can revisit the past, and pursue the better life. Thus, memory can be considered as one of the most important and indispensable factors for being “humans”. In the past study, memory has been dissected, and experimentally investigated. We can now technically manipulate memory by light-illumination, which we have seen only on the screen. I will summarize the recent advances in this research field, and introduce what we can learn from the extremely simple organism, fruit flies. The story of memory, which is indispensable for our life but fragile, could hopefully encourage us to reconsider how we can be “humans”, and stimulate our cross-disciplinary discussion.