Our memories are stored in brain connection called synapsis . And allot to a newNaturestudy , synapses are n’t lasting structures : They only last as long as the memory they store .
The genus Hippocampus keeps memories of events that happen and conversation we have that might be forgotten over time if we do n’t hark back them . These are known as occasional memories . When mice experience a new instalment , such as fill a fresh cage mate , or determine to navigate a maze for intellectual nourishment , that retentiveness is stored in the genus Hippocampus for about a month . ( In people it ’s salt away for a bit longer than that . ) If the genus Hippocampus is disrupted within a month of forming a retentiveness , by surgery for instance , that retentivity will be lose . But if that same hoo-hah pass off after a calendar month is up , the memory is hold back since it had been relocate to the neopallium . remembering are gradually moved around the psyche .
However , only some of the connections in the neopallium are permanent . researcher antecedently monitor " spine " , the bulbous protrusions from the branching projection of neurons cognize as dendrites . Spines come and go as synaptic connections between neurons are work and broken . Only half of the backbone in the neopallium are permanent ; the sleep ferment over every 5–15 day . " The interpretation was that about half the spines in the neocortex are longsighted - term repositories for memories while others keep on malleability for new memories or forgetting,“Stanford ’s Mark Schnitzersaid in astatement .
Now Schnitzer ’s team wants to monitor the life of synapsis between hippocampal neurons . But unlike the neocortex , which is near the Earth’s surface , the hippocampus lies deeply within the eye of the brain and its thorn are densely packed . So they flux a stable , high - resolution imaging technique using an ocular needle called a microendoscope , with a numerical model that accounts for the restriction in resoluteness .
Connections between hippocampal neurons in alive mice last for about 30 mean solar day – this is about the continuance of episodic memory in mice . The spur all turn over every three to six weeks . The life of hippocampal synapsis , they found , match the longevity of hippocampal memory .
