6.26.2009
Say Cheese: 1st Picture of a Memory Being Made
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Incredible...it's the first picture of a memory being made in a...sea slug through the efforts of UCLA researchers.
The increase in green fluorescence represents the imaging of protein synthesis at synapses when memories are made. Credit: Martin et. al
For the first time, an image of a memory being made at the cellular level has been captured by scientists.
The image shows that proteins are created at connections between brain cells when a long-term memory is formed. Neuroscientists had suspected as much, but hadn't been able to see it happening until now.
The experiment also revealed some surprising aspects of memory formation, which remains a somewhat mysterious process.
Kelsey Martin, a biochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues investigated memory formation in neurons from the sea slug Aplysia californica, a good model for brain cells in other organisms, including humans.
Read all
The increase in green fluorescence represents the imaging of protein synthesis at synapses when memories are made. Credit: Martin et. al
For the first time, an image of a memory being made at the cellular level has been captured by scientists.
The image shows that proteins are created at connections between brain cells when a long-term memory is formed. Neuroscientists had suspected as much, but hadn't been able to see it happening until now.
The experiment also revealed some surprising aspects of memory formation, which remains a somewhat mysterious process.
Kelsey Martin, a biochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues investigated memory formation in neurons from the sea slug Aplysia californica, a good model for brain cells in other organisms, including humans.
Read all
Labels: about, memories, synapses, talking, you're
