Sometimes, even a single experience can be highly impactful, prompting humans and other animals to change their behavior or influencing their future choices. The formation of influential memories from a single, brief experience is also known as one-shot learning.

Researchers at Collège de France (CNRS/INSERM/Université PSL), Inria, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and Brandeis University recently conducted a study investigating the neural underpinnings of one-shot learning in mice.

Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that one-shot learning is partly supported by endocannabinoid-mediated long-term potentiation (eCB-LTP), a lasting strengthening of communication at synapses, the junctions through which neurons exchange signals.