RNAi and brain function: was McConnell on the right track?

RNA interference (RNAi), one of the hottest topics of molecular biology research today, has unique features that are eerily reminiscent of the phenomenon of "RNA-mediated memory transfer," a controversial line of work that was investigated with great enthusiasm in the 1960s. If not a coincidence, then this suggests taking a new look at RNA-mediated modulation of neural function and raises the possibility that RNAi might be one of the physiologic mechanisms that regulate long-term gene expression in the brain.