Dr. Michael Kilgard

Every cell knows everything.

That's how it's built.

But with us, a cell, I didn't know of a way, there was no biology then or now, where one cell could know what is happening about everything.

The closest thing that was available was release of

Acetylcholine.

We knew that if you took a drug for 100 years we've known that blocks all the acetylcholine, you won't remember anything.

Nothing you're hearing on this podcast will be remembered if you took a drug that blocked acetylcholine.

You just won't remember anything.

It's an amnestic.

People used to give it to patients when they'd have surgery so they wouldn't remember all the horrible pain.

What is the drug?

The drugs, anticholinergics like scopolamine, atropine.

These are drugs that block acetylcholine just by preventing the neurotransmitter from binding the receptor.

These are now date rape drugs, these kinds of things.

They're really bad because they block our memories and we need our memories.

And we knew acetylcholine was responsible, but that doesn't really explain how it works.

The fact that you need it doesn't say what it's doing.

So the hypothesis was maybe the animals paying attention doesn't matter.

Maybe it's simpler than that.

And maybe what's really happening is each time the animal tries, pays attention, focuses with that friction, with that attention, that at that moment, there's a burst of acetylcholine being released.