"This research argues that the underlying mechanisms through which memories form in the hippocampus are not as straightforward as the field once thought. It's not only about strengthening connections," said Brad Pfeiffer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern and a Southwestern Medical Foundation Scholar in Biomedical Research.with Lenora Volk, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry. Drs.
To better understand neuronal activity, Drs. Volk and Pfeiffer, along with colleagues at UTSW, took advantage of a new technology called a calcium-modulated photo-activatable ratiometric integrator . This tool causes neurons to glow green until they are activated during an experience, at which point they permanently switch from green to red, allowing the researchers to identify those neurons that may have participated in memory formation.
These activated neurons were distributed nearly equally among two populations, superficial and deep neurons, named for their physical location within the. However, when the researchers examined synapses that had formed in these two neuronal populations, they found distinct differences: While connections had strengthened among the activated superficial neurons, those among the activated deep neurons had weakened.
"Thus," Dr. Volk said,"the deep neurons' weakened connections may not reflect global synaptic weakening, but rather synaptic refinement among the neurons most important for encoding memory."
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