Memories could be lost if two key brain regions fail to sync together, study finds
Press release issued:
Learning, remembering something, and recalling memories is supported by multiple separate groups of neurons connected inside and across key regions in the brain. If these neural assemblies fail to sync together at the right time, the memories are lost, a new study led by the universities of Bristol and Heidelberg has found.
Learning, remembering something, and recalling memories is supported by multiple separate groups of neurons connected inside and across key regions in the brain. If these neural assemblies fail to sync together at the right time, the memories are lost, a new study led by the universities of Bristol and Heidelberg has found.
"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 is 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 animals made mistakes.
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.
Dr Michal Kucewicz led all the experiments during his PhD at the University of Bristol. Michal currently leads the Brain and Mind Electrophysiology laboratory at Gdansk University of Technology.
Michal's research is developing technology for electrical stimulation of the brain for memory enhancement in patients suffering from epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. The goal of his research is to discover the mechanisms of human memory and mind.
BN was founded by the University of Bristol in 2003 to ensure that all neuroscientists in Bristol could benefit from the wide cross-disciplinary expertise and facilities in the University and its partner hospitals. It has since become a model for other cities across the UK.
Expertise within BN ranges from molecular and cellular neuroscience to clinical, patient-based research, with areas of interest including human cognition, synaptic plasticity, stress and dementia.
