Scientists Demonstrate Mechanism for Encoding Memory

Memory encoding in the brain has remained mysterious, despite an entire century of research. Neuronal synaptic connection strengths are involved, but synaptic components are short-lived, while memories last lifetimes, suggesting that synaptic information is encoded and hard-wired at a deeper, finer-grained molecular scale.

Now, physicists Travis Craddock and Jack Tuszynski of the University of Alberta, and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff of the University of Arizona, are demonstrating a plausible mechanism for encoding synaptic memory in microtubules, major components of the structural cytoskeleton within neurons — that’s according to an article that appears in the March 8 issue of the journal PLoS Computational Biology. For more information, click here to read the full release.