Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Can J Neurol Sci. 2011 Sep;38(5):681-8. doi: 10.1017/s0317167100054044.
There have been great advances in the neurological sciences in recent years including some in the higher functions of the brain such as memory but one of the more critical of these with close ties to memory is consciousness which remains an enigma. Revolutionary developments in genetics during the last two decades, referred to as epigenetics, have provided opportunity for discovery. The chromatin in the cell nucleus consists mainly of DNA nucleotides and histone proteins and the DNA is dynamically and epigenetically altered by the local actions of enzymes and trans-acting factors on the adjacent histone amino acids. DNA is also directly activated or inhibited by methyl groups and by non-coding RNAs. Epigenetics is a determinant in long-term cell memory consolidation and, as recently demonstrated in animal and human studies and described here, these effects enable a rapid and extraordinarily complex cognitive matching of cell memory to experience during consciousness.
近年来神经科学取得了重大进展，包括大脑高级功能的一些进展，如记忆，但与记忆密切相关的更关键的进展之一是意识，它仍然是一个谜。过去二十年被称为表观遗传学的遗传学的革命性发展为发现提供了机会。细胞核中的染色质主要由 DNA 核苷酸和组蛋白组成，并且 DNA 被酶和反式作用因子在相邻组氨酸氨基酸上的局部作用动态地和表观遗传地改变。DNA 也被甲基和非编码 RNA 直接激活或抑制。表观遗传学是长期细胞记忆巩固的决定因素，最近在动物和人类研究中得到证实，并在这里描述，这些效应使细胞记忆与意识期间的经验进行快速而异常复杂的认知匹配成为可能。
