(Press-News.org) A team of New York University neuroscientists has determined how a pair of growth factor molecules contributes to long-term memory formation, a finding that appears in the journal Neuron.
"These results give us a better understanding of memory's architecture and, specifically, how molecules act as a network in creating long-term memories," explains the paper's senior author, Thomas Carew, a professor in NYU's Center for Neural Science and dean of NYU's Faculty of Arts and Science. "More importantly, this marks another step toward elucidating the intricacies of memory function, which is vital in the development of cognitive therapies to address related afflictions."
The importance of growth factor molecules (GFs) has long been known. They are critical in building brains beginning in utero and until adulthood. Moreover, over time, it's been established that GFs are "recycled" from brain builders to engineers of long-term memories.
Less clear, however, is how the wide range of GF families, as well as different members within each family, act to help us create these memories.
In working to address this question, the NYU research team, which also included graduate student Ashley Kopec, the study's lead author, and research scientist Gary Philips, focused on two GF families: TrkB and TGFβr-II, which represent two distinct classes of GFs that utilize different types of receptors to exert their actions in the brain.
In their study, the researchers examined GFs in Aplysia californica, the California sea slug. Aplysia is a model organism that is quite powerful for this type of research because its neurons are 10 to 50 times larger than those of higher organisms, such as vertebrates, and it possesses a relatively small network of neurons--characteristics that readily allow for the examination of molecular signaling during memory formation.
Specifically, to produce a form of "threat memory" called sensitization in a simple reflex system of Aplysia, the researchers presented the sea slugs with a pair of mild tail shocks delivered 45 minutes apart--the first to instill a "molecular context" in the neurons of the reflex and the second to use that context to drive molecular mechanisms that are required to form a long-term memory -- and then examined GF activity at both periods, Time 1 and Time 2.
Their results showed differences in the role of these two GF families across two dimensions: time and space.
At Time 1, when the context for the memory is first created, TrkB plays a critical role while TGFβr-II is irrelevant. However, at Time 2, when a long-term memory is actually formed, the roles are reversed: TGFβr-II is active, but TrkB is insignificant.
In addition, the results showed spatial differences.
In Aplysia, the simple neural circuit that mediates the reflex modified by learning is made up of unique sensory neurons and motor neurons. The sensory neurons' cell bodies live in one compartment of the brain while their companion synapses, which pass along signals to other cells, reside in another. In the Neuron study, the researchers found that the TrkB effects are exerted only at synapses while TGFβr-II functions only at the cell body.
Overall the study provides new insights into how different GF families play unique roles both in time and in space, thus helping to elucidate the "when," "where," and "how" of memory formation.
INFORMATION:
The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (RO1 MH 041083, F31 MH 100889).
DURHAM, N.C. - Scientists at Duke Medicine have produced a 3-D map of the human brain stem at an unprecedented level of detail using MRI technology.
In a study to be published June 3 in Human Brain Mapping, the researchers unveil an ultra high-resolution brain stem model that could better guide brain surgeons treating conditions such as tremors and Parkinson's disease with deep brain stimulation (DBS).
The new 3-D model could eliminate risky trial-and-error as surgeons implant electrodes -- a change akin to trading an outdated paper road atlas for a real-time GPS.
"On ...
An international team of scientists led by Cardiff University researchers has provided the strongest evidence yet of what causes schizophrenia - a condition that affects around 1% of the global population.
Published today (17:00BST, 03/06/2015) in the journal Neuron, their work presents strong evidence that disruption of a delicate chemical balance in the brain is heavily implicated in the disorder.
In the largest ever study of its kind, the team found that disease-linked mutations disrupt specific sets of genes contributing to excitatory and inhibitory signalling, ...
A large majority of Americans--including gun owners--continue to support stronger policies to prevent gun violence than are present in current federal and most state law, according to a new national public opinion survey conducted by researchers with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The survey is a follow-up to one conducted by the same researchers in early 2013, shortly after the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut that left 26 dead.
The results are published online in Preventive ...
This news release is available in French. Professors Frederick Gosselin and Daniel Therriault, along with their master's student Renaud Passieux, are not related to Spiderman. Nevertheless, these Polytechnique Montreal researchers have produced an ultra-tough polymer fibre directly inspired by spider silk! They recently published an article about the project in the journal Advanced Materials.
Spider silk: a thread with stunning properties
Three to eight microns in diameter but five to ten times tougher than steel or Kevlar: despite its lightness, spider silk has ...
Love the opera? Hungry for hip hop? It turns out that your musical likes and dislikes may say more about you than you think, according to UBC research.
Even in 2015, social class continues to inform our cultural attitudes and the way we listen to music, according to the study, which was recently published in the Canadian Review of Sociology.
"Breadth of taste is not linked to class. But class filters into specific likes and dislikes," said Gerry Veenstra, study author and professor at UBC's Department of Sociology.
The study involved nearly 1,600 telephone interviews ...
A NASA-generated animation of NOAA's GOES-West satellite imagery from June 1 to 3 showed Hurricane Andres' eye disappear as the storm weakened into a tropical storm.
NOAA's GOES-West satellite has provided continuous visible and infrared imagery of the former hurricane since it was born. An animation created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland captured the storm as it made the transition from a hurricane, back into a tropical storm. Andres is located in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, south of Baja California, Mexico. ...
Alcohol use disorder as defined by a new diagnostic classification was widespread and often untreated in the United States, with a lifetime prevalence of 29.1 percent but only 19.8 percent of adults were ever treated, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry.
Alcohol use disorders are among the most prevalent mental health disorders worldwide, resulting in disability and contributing to illness and death. Because of the seriousness of alcohol use disorders, updated epidemiologic data are needed given the changes to the alcohol use disorder diagnostic ...
Tropical Storm Blanca strengthened into a hurricane while remaining almost stationary and about 400 miles west of the west coast of Mexico on June 3. NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Blanca before it strengthened, while NOAA's GOES-West satellite saw the strengthening storm develop a pinhole eye.
Satellite data indicate that Blanca continues to rapidly strengthen as a small eye has become apparent in infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite during the early morning hours today, June 3.
Blanca hasn't moved much in the last day but has continued to ...
When the scent of a fragrant product triggers a fond memory that a customer holds, it is more likely to be a hit. So says Rachel Herz of Brown University, and Haruko Sugiyama and colleagues at the Kao Corporation in Japan and the US, who conducted a study now published in Springer's journal Chemosensory Perception. Its results indicate how a product's scent often evokes personal emotional memories and influences its appeals to customers.
Herz and colleagues set out to test how odor-evoked memories influence customers' perceptions of a product, as this has never been ...
As astronauts embark on increasingly ambitious space missions, scientists have to figure out how to keep them healthy for longer periods far from Earth. That entails assuring the air they breathe and the water they drink are safe -- not an easy task given their isolated locations. But scientists are now reporting in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry a new method to monitor the quality of both in real time with one system.
Current options for testing air and water for contaminants, including microbes and radiation, require collecting samples and sending them back to ...
