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Physiology and the whole organism  ·  Article

Memory as adaptation

Memory as adaptation is the view, put by J. S. Haldane in 1917, that memory is a phenomenon of the same nature as adaptation2. An experience leaves its mark in the body as a readier reaction to a like experience3. His comparison was infection and vaccination3. The idea places memory in general physiology, and it parallels the memory of prior exposure in adaptive immunity4.

Earliest held
1890, James, W.
Most discussed in
The Nature of Man: Studies in Optimistic…, 1903
In the library
12 passages in 8 works
Rewritten
2026-10-11
18501875190019251950197520002025Metchnikoff, E., 19031Haldane, J. S., 19172Haldane, J. S., 19173Paré JF, Martyniuk CJ, Levin M, 20174Paré JF, Martyniuk CJ, Levin M, 20175Paré JF, Martyniuk CJ, Levin M, 20176Paré JF, Martyniuk CJ, Levin M, 20177Sperry MM, Novak R, Keshari V, Dinis…, 20228Sperry MM, Novak R, Keshari V, Dinis…, 20229
01

Haldane's physiological view

J. S. Haldane put the view in Organism and Environment as Illustrated by the Physiology of Breathing (1917). He wrote that, regarded from the purely physiological standpoint, memory is a phenomenon of the same nature as adaptation2. An experience or effort that has been gone through leaves its mark in the body. The mark is an increased power of reaction to a similar experience or effort3. Haldane compared this to an attack of an infectious disease or to vaccination, which leaves a power of quickly repelling a similar infection3. He added that without such a mark memory would be a useless incumbrance3.

02

Vaccination in earlier texts

Vaccination appears earlier in the held texts as a matter of public conduct. Metchnikoff, in The Nature of Man (1903), named the freedom to neglect vaccination against smallpox among freedoms that he judged worthy of savage days1. He grouped it with spitting on the floor and letting dogs run loose unmuzzled1. He expected such freedoms to cease as civilisation advances1. The held passage does not describe vaccination as a kind of memory. Haldane's later comparison supplies that reading3.

03

Immune memory and bioelectricity

Paré, Martyniuk and Levin (2017) divide the vertebrate immune system into innate and adaptive parts. They describe the adaptive part as mediated by B and T lymphocytes and reliant on the memory of previous exposure to the targeted pathogen4. They state that current vaccination strategies use adaptive immunity to create a specific memory that stimulates immediate reaction on later exposure5. Their own finding concerns the innate side. Depolarization and regeneration of the host raised resistance to uropathogenic E. coli, and hyperpolarization had the opposite effect6. They suggest bioelectricity might be manipulated to improve the effectiveness of vaccines7.

04

Tolerance as an alternative

Sperry and colleagues (2022) describe current therapy as direct killing of bacteria with antibiotics or induced immunological resistance through vaccines8. They note that people must be willing to be vaccinated before infection for a vaccine to confer any defence8. They propose another route. Therapeutics could augment host tolerance to infection while the pathogen remains, instead of killing or inactivating the microbes9.

SourcesEach quotation was checked word for word against the passage it opens.
  1. Other forms of freedom, such as the freedom to neglect vaccination against smallpox, to spit on the floor, or to let dogs run loose without being muzzled, are worthy of savage daysMetchnikoff, E., 1903 · The Nature of Man: Studies in Optimistic Philosophy · open at passage 628
  2. When one regards the facts of memory from the purely physiological standpoint it is evident that memory is a phenomenon of the same nature as adap- tation.Haldane, J. S., 1917 · Organism and Environment as Illustrated by the Physiology of Breathing · open at passage 179
  3. An experience or effort which has been gone through leaves its mark in the body as increased power of reaction to a similar experience or performance of a similar effort, just as an attack of an infectious disease, or vaccination, leaves its markHaldane, J. S., 1917 · Organism and Environment as Illustrated by the Physiology of Breathing · open at passage 179
  4. The latter is mediated by B and T lymphocytes and relies on the memory of previous exposure to the targeted pathogenic agent.Paré JF, Martyniuk CJ, Levin M, 2017 · Bioelectric regulation of innate immune system function in regenerating and… · open at passage 1
  5. Current vaccination strategies rely on adaptive immunity to create a specific memory that will stimulate immediate immune reaction upon future exposure to the pathogenParé JF, Martyniuk CJ, Levin M, 2017 · Bioelectric regulation of innate immune system function in regenerating and… · open at passage 1
  6. General depolarization and regeneration of the host leads to increased resistance to infection by uropathogenic E. coli, while its hyperpolarization shows the opposite effect.Paré JF, Martyniuk CJ, Levin M, 2017 · Bioelectric regulation of innate immune system function in regenerating and… · open at passage 41
  7. since the innate immune response is crucial in initiating the adaptive response, bioelectricity could act as a variable that can be manipulated to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines.Paré JF, Martyniuk CJ, Levin M, 2017 · Bioelectric regulation of innate immune system function in regenerating and… · open at passage 41
  8. Current therapeutic strategies against bacterial infection focus on direct killing of bacteria with antibiotics or induction of immunological resistance through use of vaccinesSperry MM, Novak R, Keshari V, Dinis ALM, Cartwright MJ…, 2022 · Enhancers of Host Immune Tolerance to Bacterial Infection Discovered Using… · open at passage 1
  9. An alternative approach is to develop therapeutics that act by augmenting host tolerance to infection in the continued presence of pathogens, rather than killing or inactivating the microbes.Sperry MM, Novak R, Keshari V, Dinis ALM, Cartwright MJ…, 2022 · Enhancers of Host Immune Tolerance to Bacterial Infection Discovered Using… · open at passage 1
Linked ideas
Both treat the persistence of past experience in the body as a general physiological property, not something confined to a nervous system.
A reflex altered by prior experience is one case of the mark that experience leaves, which Haldane places under adaptation.
Adaptation in Haldane's sense belongs to the regulation of the organism in its environment, the theme homeostasis develops.
A modern case of memory in a body without a conventional brain, which fits the view that memory is not specific to neural tissue.
Treats how electrical networks in tissue change with past activity, a bioelectric version of experience leaving a mark.
Basal cognitionrelated to
Frames memory and adaptation as properties found in simple and non-neural living systems.
Both treat retained effects of past conditions as a property of living matter, not only of nervous systems.
Asks what memory is for; the transient and asymptotic split describes how long and how stably a past state is kept.
Where it is discussedPassages matching memory as adaptation, memory is a phenomenon of the same nature as adaptation, experience leaves its mark, acquired immunity as memory
1903The Nature of Man: Studies in Optimistic Philosophy · Metchnikoff, E.3
2022Enhancers of Host Immune Tolerance to Bacterial Infection Discovered Using… · Sperry MM, Novak R, Keshari V, Dinis…2
2017Bioelectric regulation of innate immune system function in regenerating and… · Paré JF, Martyniuk CJ, Levin M2
1916The Organism as a Whole, from a Physicochemical Viewpoint · Loeb, J.1
1900Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psychology · Loeb, J.1
1890The Principles of Psychology, Vols. 1-2 · James, W.1
1917Organism and Environment as Illustrated by the Physiology of Breathing · Haldane, J. S.1
1915Principles of General Physiology · Bayliss, W. M.1