What Really Happens When Brain Cells Die?
Does a dying brain cell destroy part of your memory when it dies?
Dying brain cells are an everyday occurrence. In fact, dying cells are common all over the body. Yet, what is it about brain cells that particularly interests us in this article today? Well, it was a curious question asked by someone that triggered this venture. The question was:
“If my brain cells die every day, won’t the memory stored by my brain cells go away with them? How is my memory still intact?”
It was a seemingly innocent, yet valid thread of questions. I thought I’d explore the answers to these questions in the form of a short essay.
How is Memory Stored in The Brain?
Without going into the nitty gritty science, let’s just touch upon the basics required to answer our questions. As opposed to the understanding of the person who asked the questions originally, memory that we’ve accumulated over the years is not stored within the cells.
Let’s say that memory is stored (in part) as particular patterns of cells in the brain. It is the pattern that interests us, and not the contents of the cell in the context of memories.
What Happens When Brain Cells Die?
All cells in the human body typically have a life span, and die out either after their span runs out or if they are damaged due to external factors.
But due to various biological mechanisms including the genetic code, new and identical cells are produced to replace the dying cells. Of course, the new cells are not perfect replicas.
They carry a certain amount of error in replication that can normally be ignored. But this error accumulates over a period of time, and causes the physical deviations we know as ageing. So, in short, when brain cells die, they are replaced.
