How does the process of forgetting and remembering occur in our brain?

Every day we acquire new ones memories while we forget others. However, as we age, their activation often becomes difficult and complicates our ability to understand phenomena in the environment.

There are various diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, which cause brain circuits to shut down, erasing or making it difficult to access our vital memories, having a devastating effect on patients as they lose the ability to recognize who they are and their relationships with others. In fact, simply changing such patterns makes simple tasks incredibly difficult.

In a recent study conducted by the group Mazahir T. Hasanfrom the Basque Neuroscience Center of Achucarro and Jose Maria Delgado and the Department of Neurosciences of the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville, the authors selectively blocked functional activity of neurons in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus within a few days.

Using this selective manipulation, they found that although learned memories disappeared while the DH was inactive, they reappeared as soon as his functional activity was restored.

Results published in the journal Molecular psychiatryshow that GR is necessary for the activation of already acquired memories and for their retrieval.

More about learning and its memory

While previous research by the same team at the Seville Institute suggested the possibility of selective elimination of unwanted memories, a recent paper establishes a crucial role for HD in the activation and retrieval of acquired memories.

According to the authors, this new work brings us closer to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that enable learning and memory, which is important for solving scientific problems associated with memory dysfunctions due to aging, post-traumatic stress disorder or Alzheimer’s disease.

Link:

Carretero-Guillén, A. et al. The dentate gyrus is essential for memory retrieval. Mol Psychiatry (2024).

Fountain: Pablo de Olavide University