Finding our way - understanding how we memorise places
Monday 19 July 2010
New research from the Medical Research Council (MRC) has brought scientists closer to understanding how neurons process and store memory, offering hope for the development of memory-improving drugs for people with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr Jozsef Csicsvari and colleagues from the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit (ANU) in Oxford have discovered it is possible to predict future memory performance by measuring brain cell activity during a learning experience and then during sleep.
Neurons in an area of the brain called the hippocampus enable an animal to form a spatial reference to help navigation. Until now it was not clear whether these neurons, which are often called ‘place cells’, had an additional role in encoding memory traces during spatial learning.
The group measured the activity of neurons in rats during a task where the animals had to learn the location of hidden food pellets. After memorising the location of their food, the rats were allowed to sleep. Their place cells were monitored again for activity during sleep to see how reliably the animals could remember where the food pellets were located.
Dr Csicsvari, lead author from the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit (ANU) said:
“Millions of people suffer from neurodegenerative conditions which affect their memory. Our research shows how spatial memory traces are learned and stored by hippocampal place cells. The understanding of these neuronal processes could help in the formulation of drugs to maintain and improve memory in patients with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. There could also be huge benefits for the ageing population.”
“Our study corroborates previous scientific findings on the importance of sleep in helping us memorise information – a process called ‘sleep-replay.”
The scientists plan further research which will help to understand how memory traces are transferred to other brain regions outside the hippocampus.
Unravelling the complex biology of ageing and neurodegeneration is key to the MRC’s five year strategy. By understanding brain processes at a cellular level the MRC hopes to accelerate treatments from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside.
The study, “The reorganization and reactivation of hippocampal maps predicts spatial memory performance” is published in Nature Neuroscience.
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For further information please contact the MRC Press Office on 020 7637 6011 or pressoffice@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
Note to editors
1. For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including one of the first antibiotics penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. www.mrc.ac.uk
2. The MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit aims to define the molecular, spatial and temporal organisational principles of networks in the brain at the synaptic and cellular level by analysing a variety of brain regions affected in disease. Brain areas studied at present include the cerebellum, the basal ganglia, the cerebral cortex and, in particular, the hippocampal formation.
