Molecular psychobiology of memory: Its appearance, contributions, and decline

Gaito, John

doi:10.3758/bf03326600

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Some of these expectations have been strengthened through experimentation, whereas others were ultimately discarded (cf. Chapouthier 1989;Gaito 1976). One reasonable expectation is that learning is accompanied by an increase in the efficiency of communication between neurons, a concept with extensive historical antecedents (see, e.g., James 1892;Spencer 1870;Tanzi 1893).…”

Section: Multiple Definitions Of Ltpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term potentiation: What's learning got to do with it?

1997

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Long-term potentiation (LTP) is operationally defined as a long-lasting increase in synaptic efficacy following high-frequency stimulation of afferent fibers. Since the first full description of the phenomenon in 1973, exploration of the mechanisms underlying LTP induction has been one of the most active areas of research in neuroscience. Of principal interest to those who study LTP, particularly in the mammalian hippocampus, is its presumed role in the establishment of stable memories, a role consistent with “Hebbian” descriptions of memory formation. Other characteristics of LTP, including its rapid induction, persistence, and correlation with natural brain rhythms, provide circumstantial support for this connection to memory storage. Nonetheless, there is little empirical evidence that directly links LTP to the storage of memories. In this target article we review a range of cellular and behavioral characteristics of LTP and evaluate whether they are consistent with the purported role of hippocampal LTP in memory formation. We suggest that much of the present focus on LTP reflects a preconception that LTP is a learning mechanism, although the empirical evidence often suggests that LTP is unsuitable for such a role. As an alternative to serving as a memory storage device, we propose that LTP may serve as a neural equivalent to an arousal or attention device in the brain. Accordingly, LTP may increase in a nonspecific way the effective salience of discrete external stimuli and may thereby facilitate the induction of memories at distant synapses. Other hypotheses regarding the functional utility of this intensely studied mechanism are conceivable; the intent of this target article is not to promote a single hypothesis but rather to stimulate discussion about the neural mechanisms underlying memory storage and to appraise whether LTP can be considered a viable candidate for such a mechanism.

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Section: Multiple Definitions Of Ltpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term potentiation: What's learning got to do with it?

1997

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“…To propose important, but premature, questions and expect significant answers to emerge mysteriously from inappropriate methodologies may hinder progress much more than pedestrian questions asked within the context of a sophisticated experimental methodology. As is well known, the ideas and methods of molecular biology which were incorporated into the search for the molecular bases of memory during the last two decades generated many significant theoretical questions and much data, but produced little of substantial value (Gaito, 1976). Is it premature then to expect a synthesis among the biological, ethological, and psychological disciplines to generate significant generalizations about the adaptive behavior of developing animals continuously interacting with their environments?…”

Section: Associative Learning Influences On Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Ontogeny

1982

Perspectives in Ethology

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“…The intriguing area about the worms' spatial learning was first investigated by behavioral scientists in the 1950s-1960s, by training worms to go through a T-maze 13 or a triangle maze 2 lack of water to return to watery places, which made the worms show a preference to the direction of the watery places, even the worms regenerated from a trained worm's tail showed a preference 14 . However, these experiments were criticized for poor variable control and reproducibility 15 , nor could they demonstrate the real information that worms are truly processing. Recent research with large samples revealed that the worms can form familiarity with the environment to start feeding but still unable to illustrate what the familiarity is 16 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Identical Shapes Results in a Failed Memory Formation of Location of Dark Surroundings in Planarians

Huang

Liu

Duan

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Planarians, the first kind of animal to have evolved a brain structure1 yet has not evolved visual sense, was demonstrated to have a capability of spatial learning in the last several decades2, but what does the navigation of planarians depends on is still unknown. Here, we provide an objective, strictly variable-controlled planarian training method using 3D printing techniques3 fabricated mazes. Then we use modifications of the mazes to first demonstrate a learning paradigm that worms can memorize the location of a darkened surrounding through training. However, a memory formation failure was found that in the situation of providing identical shapes in a maze, planarians cannot memorize the location of the darkened surrounding. Thus, this result shows the planarians associated darkness with the crude shape of the objects they have crawled on, which is a kind of spatial learning. This finding provides not only a key insight into spatial learning information that planarians are processing but also an interpretation of the origin of memory formation where higher grades of memory formation might originate from.

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Molecular psychobiology of memory: Its appearance, contributions, and decline

Cited by 10 publications

References 51 publications

Long-term potentiation: What's learning got to do with it?

Long-term potentiation: What's learning got to do with it?

Ontogeny

Identical Shapes Results in a Failed Memory Formation of Location of Dark Surroundings in Planarians

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