Many unique groups of neurons connected inside and across crucial areas of the brain aid in learning, remembering, and retrieving memories. A recent study led by the universities of Bristol and Heidelberg showed that if these neuronal assemblies fail to sync up at the correct time, memories are lost. The researchers set out to establish how the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex interact with each other as memories are formed, maintained, and recalled at the level of specific groups of neurons. They wanted to understand why memory sometimes fails. “Neural assemblies,” groups of neurons that join forces to process information, were shown to support memory encoding, storage, and recall by dynamic interactions. Dr. Michal Kucewicz, the lead author, and the research team identified critical processes that determine success or failure in remembering. Modulating neural assembly interactions, either using drugs or via brain stimulation, presents viable targets for therapeutic interventions on the level of neural assembly interactions. The same mechanisms would work in human patients to restore memory functions impaired in a particular brain disorder.
Many unique groups of neurons connected inside and across crucial areas of the brain aid in learning, remembering, and retrieving memories. A recent study led by the universities of Bristol and Heidelberg showed that if these neuronal assemblies fail to sync up at the correct time, memories are lost.
Short-term memory relies on two key brain regions: the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. The researchers set out to establish how these brain regions interact with one another as memories are formed, maintained, and recalled at the level of specific groups of neurons. The study, published in Currently Biology, also wanted to understand why memory sometimes fails.
“Neural assemblies,” groups of neurons that join forces to process information, were first proposed over 70 years ago but have proved difficult to pinpoint. Using brain recordings in rats, the research team has shown that memory encoding, storage, and recall are supported by dynamic interactions incorporating multiple neural assemblies formed within and between the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. When the coordination of these assemblies fails, the mammals made mistakes.
Dr. Michal Kucewicz, Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Gdansk University of Technology, formerly a PhD student at the University of Bristol, and lead author, said that the results make potential therapeutic interventions for memory restoration more challenging to target in space and time. However, they identified critical processes that determine success or failure in remembering, which presents viable targets for therapeutic interventions on the level of neural assembly interactions.
Matt Jones, Professor of Neuroscience in the School of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience and Bristol Neuroscience, and senior author of the paper, added that the findings add to evidence that the neural substrates of memory are more distributed in anatomical space and dynamic across time than previously thought based on neuropsychological models.
The next steps for the research would be to modulate neural assembly interactions, either using drugs or via brain stimulation, which Dr. Kucewicz is currently doing in human patients, to test whether disrupting or augmenting them would impair or enhance remembering. The research team presumes the same mechanisms would work in human patients to restore memory functions impaired in a particular brain disorder.
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