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Researchers at Michigan State University conducted the largest experimentally controlled study on sleep deprivation to date, revealing just how detrimental operating without sleep can be in everything from bakers adding too much salt to cookies to surgeons botching surgeries. Continue reading “How sleep deprivation hinders memory”
Adolescent male mice fed a diet lacking omega-3 fatty acids show increased anxiety-like behavior and worse performance on a memory task in adulthood, according to new research published in The Journal of Neuroscience. The study suggests adequate nutrition in adolescence is important for the refinement of the adult brain and behavior. Continue reading “Poor adolescent diet may influence brain and behavior in adulthood”
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and Japan’s University of Tsukuba found that even very light workouts can increase the connectivity between parts of the brain responsible for memory formation and storage. Continue reading “Even mild physical activity immediately improves memory function”
Memories are formed through long-term changes in synaptic efficacy, a process known as synaptic plasticity, and are stored in the brain in specific neuronal ensembles called engram cells, which are activated during corresponding events. When two memories are associated, cell ensembles corresponding to each memory overlap. However, each memory has its own identity. How the brain stores and defines a specific memory identity when two memories interact and are encoded in the shared ensemble was elusive. Here, a research team led by Dr. Kaoru Inokuchi at the University of Toyama shows that synapse-specific plasticity represents specific memory entities, and that synaptic plasticity between specific engram assemblies is both sufficient and crucial for information storage. Continue reading “Synapse-specific plasticity governs the identity of overlapping memory traces”
MIT neuroscientists have uncovered a cellular pathway that allows specific synapses to become stronger during memory formation. The findings provide the first glimpse of the molecular mechanism by which long-term memories are encoded in a region of the hippocampus called CA3. Continue reading “Molecular mechanisms of memory formation revealed”
Neuroscientists have found new evidence on how distinct memories of similar events are represented in the brain. Continue reading “Putting distinct memories of similar events in their place”
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