Memory Formation Processes Unveiled in More Detail

A group of scientists from the Duke University Medical Center was recently able to gain more insight into the mechanisms the human brain uses to memorize events that happened in the past. The findings could be used to create new treatments for a host of psychological and mental disorders.

Years ago, experts discovered that an important phenomenon took place in the brain as memories were formed – a long-lasting increase of signals across a connection between brain cells. This process was called long-term potentiation (LTP).

Subsequent researches have shown that LTP plays a central role in long-term memory formation, but exactly how the mechanism operated in doing so remained unknown to neuroscientists.

In the new study, DUMC investigators were able to discover a cascade of signaling molecules which they determined was involved in making brief memory signals that usually remained active for very brief periods of time last for tens of seconds.

According to their conclusions, it would seem that this cascade of molecules provides the neural environment needed for creating stronger-than-usual synapses (connections between two or more nerve cells called neurons).

This enables the brain to recall a specific memory over months and even years, neuroscientists explain.

According to DUMC assistant professor of neurobiology Ryohei Yasuda, PhD, the senior author of the new study, the new findings related to how synapses are strengthened by LTP could conceivably be used to develop new treatments for numerous conditions.

These include autism, mental retardation and even Alzheimer’s disease, the team reports in the March 20 issue of the top journal Nature. “We found that a biochemical process that lasts a long time is what causes memory storage,” Yasuda explains.

The investigator is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist, Science Blog reports. “The signaling molecules could help to rearrange the framework, and give more volume and strength to the synapses,” he adds.

“We reasoned that a long-lasting memory could possibly come from changes in the building block assemblies,” the research scientist goes on to say.

The new study was made possible by grant money secured from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

Additional funds were provided by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDS), the Alzheimer’s Association and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.