14 DAY TRIAL // A team led by scientists Natasha Vita-More at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Daniel Barranco of the University of Seville in Spain claim to have found evidence that memories can survive cryogenic freeze.
Thus, the specialists say that, in a series of experiments carried out in a controlled environment, they found that organisms exposed to freezing temperatures and kept in a cryogenic state for a prolonged period of time can access past memories when they, well, thaw.
The researchers describe the experiments and their outcome in a report recently published in Rejuvenation Research, a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on rejuvenation therapies and the biology of the aging process. Yup, the study seems legit.
What do they mean memories can survive cryogenic freeze?
Looking to gain a better understanding of the effects of cryogenic freeze on the body, the team led by researchers Natasha Vita-More and Daniel Barranco put a few rather unlucky worms on ice. Well, technically, no actual ice was used in these experiments.
Rather, the worms were exposed to chemical cocktails and low temperatures that ultimately put them in a cryogenic state. Some of the creepy crawlers were subjected to a cryopreservation technique dubbed vitrification, which scientists describe as instant solidification.
Others, however, enjoyed a slower freeze. Whatever the method employed to put them in a cryogenic state, the worms were all taught to recognize the smell of a chemical compound dubbed benzaldehyde and migrate towards it prior to having been turned into icicles.
Having been kept in a cryogenic state for about 30 minutes, the worms were brought back to life and their memory put to the test. The researchers found that, although not all of the worms survived the Deep Freeze, those that did could remember the scent of benzaldehyde.
“Our results in testing memory retention after cryopreservation show that the mechanisms that regulate the odorant imprinting (a form of long-term memory) in C. elegans have not been modified by the process of vitrification or by slow freezing.”
“Using a method of sensory imprinting in the young C. elegans we establish that learning acquired through olfactory cues shapes the animal’s behavior and the learning is retained at the adult stage after vitrification,” the specialists write in their report in the journal Rejuvenation Research.
The fact that the worms recognized the smell of benzaldehyde and responded to it even after having been kept frozen for 30 minutes straight counts as proof that, at least in very simple organisms, memories can survive cryogenic preservation, the scientists say.
Whether or not the same is true about humans is still up for debate, and many are leading towards a negative response on the grounds that the human brain and the memories it forms are simply too complex not to be vulnerable to damage caused by cryogenic preservation.
Nature already has surviving deep freezes all figured out
It might be that we humans are just now trying to figure out how extremely low temperatures transform the body and whether it might be possible to freeze ourselves to immortality, but the fact of the matter is that nature is already all too familiar with cryogenic preservation.
Several species of animals are known to survive harsh winters simply by allowing their body to freeze and then come back to life when the weather is nice and shiny once more. Wood frogs, for instance, spend their winters frozen in suspended animation, no breathing or heartbeat.
Then again, these species all have built-in survival mechanisms that we don't even fully understand. Safe to assume then that it will be a while until we can attempt to mimic them and use freezing temperatures to preserve our bodies. Supposing we'll ever accomplish this feat, that is.