How the brain stores memory and information • Earth.com

A recent study led by Dr. Tomás Ryan from Trinity College Dublin and his team of neuroscientists has uncovered new insights into the brain’s learning mechanisms. The study, published in the journal Current Biology, reveals that learning involves the formation of new connectivity patterns between specific engram cells in various brain regions.

Our brains are constantly adapting and changing, incorporating new information from our daily experiences. This continuous process of learning and memory formation has long intrigued scientists. 

Memory engram cells 

Dr. Ryan’s research focuses on understanding how these experiences modify our neurons, allowing us to create new memories. The key to this process lies in identifying the ‘engram,’ which is the change in the brain that stores a memory.

“Memory engram cells are groups of brain cells that, activated by specific experiences, change themselves to incorporate and thereby hold information in our brain,” explained lead author Clara Ortega-de San Luis, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Ryan Lab. 

“Reactivation of these ‘building blocks’ of memories triggers the recall of the specific experiences associated with them. The question is, how do engrams store meaningful information about the world?”

Focus of the study

To explore this question, the researchers employed a learning paradigm in which animals learned to identify and associate different contexts that are similar to each other. 

The experts utilized genetic techniques to label two distinct populations of engram cells in the brain for two discrete memories. They then monitored the formation of new connections between these engram cells as learning occurred.

Optogenetics, a technique that controls brain cell activity with light, was used to demonstrate the necessity of these newly formed connections for learning. 

New insights into learning

The study identified a molecular mechanism involving a specific protein in the synapse that regulates the connectivity between engram cells.

This research provides direct evidence that changes in synaptic wiring connectivity between engram cells are a likely mechanism for memory storage in the brain.

Study significance 

Commenting on the significance of these findings, Dr. Ryan said: “Understanding the cellular mechanisms that allow learning to occur helps us to comprehend not only how we form new memories or modify those pre-existent ones but also advance our knowledge towards disentangling how the brain works and the mechanisms needed for it to process thoughts and information.”

“In 21st-century neuroscience, many of us like to think memories are being stored in engram cells, or their sub-components. This study argues that rather than looking for information within or at cells, we should search for information between cells, and that learning may work by altering the wiring diagram of the brain – less like a computer and more like a developing sculpture. In other words, the engram is not in the cell; the cell is in the engram,” he concluded.

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