WIKIMEDIA, MARK HARKINResearchers have made mice enjoy spending time in a place they once feared using light-dependent manipulations of the animals’ neurons, according to a study published today (August 27) in Nature. This optogentically controlled memory reversal appears to be driven by altered connections between hippocampal neurons—which encode “where” memories—and amygdala neurons—which code for either positive or negative emotions, but not both—MIT researchers have found.
“It is an exciting advance in our understanding of the malleability of memory,” said Elizabeth Phelps, a professor of psychology and neural science at New York University who was not involved in the work. “They are giving us some more insight into the complex representation of aversive and appetitive memories and when and how they [change].”
Memories are created and stored in multiple areas of the brain. The amygdala, for example, processes information relating to whether something is good or bad, pleasurable or scary, and the hippocampus stores information about particular places and events, explained Richard Morris, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh who also did not participate in the study. “But if the amygdala and hippocampus talk to each other through ...
