Brain Cells Discovered Acting as Short-Term Memory Buffer

Researchers at the UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered that some cells in the front part of the brain can hold temporary short-term memory information.

Single cells in the most highly evolved part of the brain can hold nonpermanent moment-to-moment data in a process called metabotropic glutamate transmission. This process uses calcium to start a signal cascade to hold a memory trace within individual neurons for as long as a minute, and is responsible for the temporary memory used in multitasking or playing a card game.

Traditional long-term memory involves a slow-moving protein activating ion channels among cellular networks to strengthen their connections and establish a permanent record, a process too slow to record or buffer rapidly incoming messages from the senses. This research has implications for addiction, attention disorders and stress-related memory loss.

Scientists experimented with mouse models using the neurochemical dopamine, a substance necessary for proper focus and fast, short-term memory. Drug and alcohol abuse involves substances that flood the brain with dopamine, and researchers found that repeated exposure to high levels of dopamine reduces the memory trace activation ability in these specialized brain cells.

This research was published in the Febrary issue of Nature Neuroscience.

Source: ScienceDaily