NIH-Funded Study Reveals Memory Formation's Structural Basis in Mouse Brain

A NIH-funded study, employing advanced imaging techniques, has mapped the structural characteristics of learning and memory in the mouse brain. Researchers at Scripps Research, led by Marco Uytiepo and Anton Maximov, reconstructed neuronal networks involved in learning, identifying structural changes at cellular and subcellular levels. The study, published in Science, challenges the traditional theory of "neurons that fire together wire together," finding that neurons involved in memory formation were not preferentially connected. The research also observed reorganization of intracellular structures in neurons assigned to a memory trace, enhancing interactions with astrocytes. The team used genetic tools, 3D electron microscopy, and AI to examine the hippocampus of mice exposed to a conditioning task, focusing on the period after initial memory encoding but before long-term storage reorganization. This study provides insights into the structural hallmarks of memory formation and raises questions for future research on the molecular composition of multi-synaptic boutons and their role in cognition.