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There is a diagram from a book titled "Teaching with the brain in mind". The diagram shows How memories are formed according to "teaching with the brain in mind"

The diagram appears to show that the "creation of memory" involves "messages coded by RNA" moving through an axon and being released into the synaptic gap, whereupon they presumably bind to the receptors on the other side of the synapse.

Unfortunately the book does not seem to provide any sources for this and I have not been able to find any sources corroborating this claim. Can anyone provide any references?

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    $\begingroup$ The diagram is garbage. The book's author, Jensen, has a degree in English, not science, and the book is part of the promotion of his workshops on how to teach. $\endgroup$
    – mgkrebbs
    Apr 13, 2016 at 18:49
  • $\begingroup$ That mystifies me. He could have shown the usual cholinergic signaling. $\endgroup$
    – user38945
    May 13, 2019 at 14:27

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I have never heard of this pathway. Memory is usually assoiciated with synaptic plasticity by ‘Long-term potentiation’ (LTP), which has glutamate as a neurotransmitter. Neuroscience Exploring the brain (Bear, et al,. 2007), has a pretty good explanation of this process, if you're interrested. Motor patterns have more mechanisms than LTP, and are not as well understood.

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Neurons have been shown to secrete exosomes (extracellular vesicles containing RNA) which may regulate neighbouring cells. However, this is mechanistically different from synaptic signalling by neurotransmitters. Moreover, I am not sure if exosome secretion is linked with synaptic activity and whether it plays a role in memory formation. Even if exosomal RNAs do have a role, their contribution is likely to be minor, compared to other pathways (such as NMDAR, mGluR, neuropeptides etc) involved in memory formation.

References:

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