Scripps Research Institute Team Wrests Partial Control of a Memory
(March 22, 2012) The work advances understanding of how memories form and offers new insight into disorders such as schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder
Scripps Research Institute scientists and their colleagues have successfully harnessed neurons in mouse brains, allowing them to at least partially control a specific memory. Though just an initial step, the researchers hope such work will eventually lead to better understanding of how memories form in the brain, and possibly even to ways to weaken harmful thoughts for those with conditions such as schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder.
The results are reported in the March 23, 2012 issue of the journal Science.
“The question we’re ultimately interested in
is: How does the activity of the brain represent the world?” said Scripps
Research neuroscientist Mark Mayford, who led the new study. “Understanding all
this will help us understand what goes wrong in situations where you have
inappropriate perceptions. It can also tell us where the brain changes with
learning.”
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Researchers have known for decades that stimulating various
regions of the brain can trigger behaviors and even memories. But understanding
the way these brain functions develop and occur normally—effectively how we
become who we are—has been a much more complex goal.
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