Professor David Glanzman’s eLife Research is Featured in Scientific American – Memories May Not Live in Neurons’ Synapses

The finding could mean recollections are more enduring than expected and disrupt plans for PTSD treatments

As intangible as they may seem, memories have a firm biological basis. According to textbook neuroscience, they form when neighboring brain cells send chemical communications across the synapses, or junctions, that connect them. Each time a memory is recalled, the connection is reactivated and strengthened. The idea that synapses store memories has dominated neuroscience for more than a century, but a new study by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, may fundamentally upend it: instead memories may reside inside brain cells. If supported, the work could have major implications for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition marked by painfully vivid and intrusive memories.

Link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/memories-may-not-live-in-neurons-synapses/