New research!

Exciting new research is being done with the Bio-Signal Group's ITS Place Avoidance tracking system and a Rotating Arena.

Scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have discovered a molecular mechanism that maintains memories in the brain. In an article in Science magazine, they demonstrate that by inhibiting the molecule they can erase long-term memories, much as you might erase a computer disc. The ITS Place Avoidance system was crucial to this work. ITS was used to establish short-term place avoidance memory lasting 10 min, long-term place avoidance memories lasting one day and one week, and even a remote place avoidance memory lasting 30 days.

Furthermore, erasing the memory from the brain does not prevent the ability to re-learn the memory, much as an erased computer disc may be re-used. This finding may some day have applications in treating chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and memory loss, among other conditions.

The SUNY Downstate researchers reported in the August 25 issue of Science that an enzyme called “protein kinase M zeta” stores long-term memories by perpetuating LTP. This is analogous to the mechanism storing information as 0’s and 1’s in a computer’s hard disc. By inhibiting the enzyme, the scientists were able to erase a memory that had been stored for one day, or even one month. This function in memory storage is specific to protein kinase M zeta, because inhibiting related molecules did not disrupt memory.

These findings may be useful for the treatment of disorders characterized by the pathological over-strengthening of synaptic connections, such as neuropathic pain, phantom limb syndrome, dystonia, and post-traumatic stress. Conversely, the identification of the core molecular mechanism for memory storage may focus effort on the development of specific therapeutic agents that enhance memory persistence and prevent memory loss. Earlier this year, SUNY Downstate scientists reported that PKMzeta was bound up in the tangles of Alzheimer's disease, thus perhaps blocking its function in memory storage.

The Science article is available here.

More information on the ITS Place Avoidance system is available here.

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