Summary: A recent study demonstrates that our brains actually link thoughts that were close in period through changes in the synapses of neurons rather than the cell bodies. Researchers discovered that the same terminal branches are activated when carefully timed experiences are encoded, properly binding the memories, using sophisticated imaging in mice.
This finding explains why events that occur on the same day seem to be connected while those that occur days off appear more distant. The findings provide fresh insights into how memories are organized, which could help with Alzheimer’s and other memory-related issues.
Important Information
- Dendritic Memory Linking: Ram that has been formed in a while is stored in the same migratory trees, forming physical connections between them.
- Experimental confirmation: Mice that were quickly exposed to two conditions interacted socially, freezing in both after a horror in just one.
- Medical Possible: Recognizing synaptic memory compression might lead to novel treatments for treating memory-related problems.
Ohio State University is the cause
A new investigation reveals the reason why our brains actually link memories that occur close in time not in neurons ‘ body bodies but rather in their prickly extensions called , dendrites, if you’ve ever noticed how memories from the same time look connected while events from weeks off feel independent.
Researchers used developed imaging techniques, including small microscopes, to observe memory formation in mice, to support this discovery.
The study demonstrates that memories are kept in synaptic compartments: When one memory develops, the afflicted dendrites are primed to process fresh information within a few hours, thereby forming a link between memories that have been formed in a distant past.
Neurons are like little computers inside them, each carrying its own computations, according to lead author Megha Sehgal, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at The Ohio State University.
” This discovery expands our understanding of how recollections are organized by showing that our brains can link information arriving at a close-in-time to the same migratory place.”
The study was just published in the journal Nature Science, Nature.
Sehgal’s laboratory aims to find out how we organize many memories despite the majority of learning and memory studies focusing on how a second memory is created in the brain.
We don’t create memories in loneliness, the theory goes. You never create a second storage. When you need to create adjustments, you use that recollection, create a framework of thoughts, and then draw from that construction,” she said.
The primary brain cells, known as neurons, are known to transmit and relay information. Dendrites, which are branch-like projections that extend from neurons, play a crucial role in how information is received, received, and delivered to the body of the cerebral cell.
However, dendrites are more than just passive conduits; each synaptic branch can function as a distinct mathematical unit. Neurons have been regarded as having a significant role in the functioning of the brain, but Sehgal said that how they affect learning and memory has not been fully understood.
The team discovered that memories of these situations quickly developed when mice were exposed to two different surroundings during experiments. If mice were to experience a slight impact in one of these environments, the animals would end up freezing out of concern in both, associating the impact from one place to the other.
The study focused on the region of the brain known as the retrosplenium cortex ( RSC), which is crucial for spatial and contextual memory. The researchers discovered that the same groups of RSC cells and their dendritic branches were constantly engaged in linked memories.
The group visualized synaptic spines, little protrusions on dendrites where neurons speak, to visualize these changes at the terminal level.
Clustered migratory spines, a approach essential for strengthening neuronal communication and facilitating learning, were added as a result of the formation of new memories.
Dendritic spine clusters formed after the first storage were more likely to draw fresh spines during a subsequent carefully timed memory, literally resembling those brain experiences.
The group used optogenetics, a method that allows researchers to handle neurons with lighting, to ensure the part of dendrites in linking memories. They were able to reference then related memories by reactivating certain dendritic segments that had been engaged during memory formation, more demonstrating the significance of synaptic changes in shaping memory networks.
The findings provide new avenues for the study of memory-related disorders, according to Sehgal, while also revealing a previously undiscovered role that dendrites play in memory-linking.
Our research not only improves our understanding of how memories are created, but it also opens up novel avenues of manipulation for higher order memory processes, she said.
This may have an impact on the development of treatments for memory-related conditions like Alzheimer’s.
Sehgal and Alcino Silva, the Integrative Center for Learning and Memory at UCLA, Panayiota Poirazi, the research director of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas in Greece, collaborated on the study.
Funding: This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Aging, the European Commission, the National Institutes of Health, and the Einstein Foundation Berlin.
About this news about neuroscience and memory research
Author: Emily Caldwell
Source: Ohio State University
Contact: Emily Caldwell – Ohio State University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Free of charge.
Megha Sehgal and colleagues ‘” Compartmentalized dendritic plasticity in the mouse retrosplenial cortex links contextual memories that have a long history.” Neuroscience of the natural world
Abstract
In the retrosplenial cortex of a mouse, contextual memories that were closely related to one another are compared to one another.
Events that take place close to the present are frequently associated with memory, and recent research suggests that these memories are encoded by overlapping neuronal ensembles. Dendritic plasticity mechanisms play a role in linking memories, but their role is unknown.
We demonstrate that branch-specific dendritic allocation mechanisms are essential for memory linking in the mouse retrosplenium cortex in addition to neuronal ensemble overlap.
The same dendritic segments are preferentially activated by two linked ( but not independent ) contextual memories, and spine clusters added to the same dendritic segments after each of two linked ( but not independent ) contextual memories are added.
Importantly, we demonstrate that the reactivation of dendrites during the initial context exploration is sufficient to connect two contextual memories.
Our findings reveal rules governing the allocation of linked and independent memories to dendritic compartments and highlight a crucial role for localized dendritic plasticity in memory integration.
