{"id":135388,"date":"2022-02-09T07:22:21","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T15:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/new-brain-imaging-technique-suggests-memories-are-stored-in-the-connections-between-your-neurons"},"modified":"2022-02-09T07:22:21","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T15:22:21","slug":"new-brain-imaging-technique-suggests-memories-are-stored-in-the-connections-between-your-neurons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/new-brain-imaging-technique-suggests-memories-are-stored-in-the-connections-between-your-neurons","title":{"rendered":"New brain imaging technique suggests memories are stored in the connections between your neurons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YLVdRPVj-XM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>All memory storage devices, from your brain to the RAM in your computer, store information by changing their physical qualities. Over 130 years ago, pioneering neuroscientist <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/0166-2236(94)90101-5\">Santiago Ram\u00f3n y Cajal<\/a> first suggested that the brain stores information by rearranging the connections, or synapses, between neurons.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, neuroscientists have attempted to understand the physical changes associated with memory formation. But visualizing and mapping synapses is challenging to do. For one, synapses are very small and tightly packed together. They\u2019re roughly <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/cmr.a.21249\">10 billion times smaller<\/a> than the smallest object a standard clinical MRI can visualize. Furthermore, there are approximately <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/d41586-019-02208-0\">1 billion synapses<\/a> in the mouse brains researchers often use to study brain function, and they\u2019re all the same opaque to translucent color as the tissue surrounding them.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2107661119\">new imaging technique<\/a> my colleagues <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=z040dHgAAAAJ&hl=en\">and I<\/a> developed, however, has allowed us to map synapses during memory formation. We found that the process of forming new memories changes how brain cells are connected to one another. While some areas of the brain create more connections, others lose them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All memory storage devices, from your brain to the RAM in your computer, store information by changing their physical qualities. Over 130 years ago, pioneering neuroscientist Santiago Ram\u00f3n y Cajal first suggested that the brain stores information by rearranging the connections, or synapses, between neurons. Since then, neuroscientists have attempted to understand the physical changes [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}