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Protein
Linked to Permanent Memory
NEW
YORK (Reuters Health) - For the first time, scientists have identified
a protein in the brain that is required for turning short-term
memories into permanent ones.
Initial learning
takes place in one part of the brain, the hippocampus, but these
first experiences become permanent memories only after reinforcement
in the brain's outermost layer, the cortex, according to Dr. Alcino
J. Silva from the University of California at Los Angeles and
associates.
Until now,
little was known about the processes involved in making that translation.
The authors
tested mice that had only half the normal levels of a protein
called alpha-CaMKII. The total absence of this protein results
in learning and memory problems. The model they used enabled the
scientists to separate the short-term learning functions of the
hippocampus from the permanent memory functions of the cortex.
Mice with
less alpha-CaMKII learned tasks as well as normal mice, the authors
report in the May 17th issue of Nature, but--unlike normal mice--they
forgot the tasks within a few days. The timing of this memory
loss, they say, matches the shift in the memory function from
the hippocampus to the cortex.
Using sophisticated
measurements of the electrical activity of the brain, the researchers
also showed that mice deficient in alpha-CaMKII have disruptions
in the type of activity usually associated with the development
of memories. Again, these disruptions were present in the cortex,
but not in the hippocampus.
``We have
uncovered new insights into the function of this protein (it is
involved in the formation of permanent memories in the cortex),
but our work also speaks to the sites and mechanisms required
to establish permanent memories in the brain,'' Silva told Reuters
Health. ``This information will be essential to design therapies
to memory disorders.''
``Our article
reports the first molecular and cellular information into one
of memory's most mysterious processes: how we establish the memories
that the brain retains, the ones that become our oldest memories,''
Silva concluded. ``These are very specific (and hopefully important)
clues into this mysterious and wonderful process.''
SOURCE:
Nature 2001;411:309-313,248-249.
Reference
Source 89
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