Neuroscience
Biologically-speaking, new memories are based on changes to synapses – the gaps across which neurons communicate with each other. Now scientists in America say they have found a way to witness these synaptic changes right after they've happened, using rats and a fluorescent staining technique.
Gary Lynch, professor of psychiatry and human behaviour at the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues injected rats with fluorescent antibodies that are known to attach themselves to synapses undergoing long term potentiation (LTP) – a key physical substrate of memory formation.
The researchers placed the injected rats in a maze-like environment for 30 minutes on two successive days. The rats' behaviour on the second day indicated they had remembered their way around from the first day. Crucially, other rats given an injection that blocks LTP didn't show this learning. After the second day in the maze, some of the rats were killed and a tiny part of their brains from within the hippocampus was viewed under a microscope.
Thanks to the fluorescent staining, and by comparing the brain tissue from the rats who had learned their way around, with tissue from the rats who'd hadn't, the scientists were able to see the dramatic synaptic changes associated with memory formation. "This is the first time anyone has seen the physical substrate, the 'face' of newly encoded memory. We have cleared a hurdle that once seemed insurmountable," Professor Lynch said.
The researchers believe their technique may pave the way for mapping 'engrams' – physical memory traces – across the brain.
The findings are published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer).
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This is a news item from The Psychologist magazine, another serving from the table of the British Psychological Society.
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Neuroscience
Watching new memories form
Biologically-speaking, new memories are based on changes to synapses – the gaps across which neurons communicate with each other. Now scientists in America say they have found a way to witness these synaptic changes right after they've happened, using rats and a fluorescent staining technique.Gary Lynch, professor of psychiatry and human behaviour at the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues injected rats with fluorescent antibodies that are known to attach themselves to synapses undergoing long term potentiation (LTP) – a key physical substrate of memory formation.
The researchers placed the injected rats in a maze-like environment for 30 minutes on two successive days. The rats' behaviour on the second day indicated they had remembered their way around from the first day. Crucially, other rats given an injection that blocks LTP didn't show this learning. After the second day in the maze, some of the rats were killed and a tiny part of their brains from within the hippocampus was viewed under a microscope.
Thanks to the fluorescent staining, and by comparing the brain tissue from the rats who had learned their way around, with tissue from the rats who'd hadn't, the scientists were able to see the dramatic synaptic changes associated with memory formation. "This is the first time anyone has seen the physical substrate, the 'face' of newly encoded memory. We have cleared a hurdle that once seemed insurmountable," Professor Lynch said.
The researchers believe their technique may pave the way for mapping 'engrams' – physical memory traces – across the brain.
The findings are published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer).
--
This is a news item from The Psychologist magazine, another serving from the table of the British Psychological Society.
- Everything Is Wrong
...about protein synthesis and memory formation, apparently. In keeping with the general theme of propranolol as a "memory eraser," a brand new iconoclastic paper (Canal, Chang, & Gold, 2007) claims that massive fluctuations in neurotransmitter levels...
- Donald Stein's Research: Recovery From Traumatic Brain Injury (tbi)
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal ran a feature article about neuroscientist Donald Stein and his career exploring facets of recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI): One Doctor's Lonely Quest To Heal Brain Injury After 40 Years, Skeptics Back...
- Rats In The News
You've probably read the news story which has received a good deal of press over the past day about a psychological investigation into language-patterning abilities in rats. The full-text reprint of this paper is available at this time on the website...
- Memory Circuitry
This press release from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute discusses a newly published paper on memory formation in the brain:Brain Circuit May Permit Scientists to Eavesdrop on Memory Formation 07 Oct 2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute...
- Memory Divided
The new October issue of the American Psychological Association's Monitor on Psychology includes several short articles of interest to neuroscience readers. One of these articles is about one researcher's career of researching memory systems....