Gene controls Memory formation

Research team that was led by Indian origin neuroscientist have found gene which is known to activate or rather turn on when any form of information is stored in brain, i.e. memories being stored. This discovery is believed can help in pinpointing exact location of the memory in brain.

When we observe something like a new event, then our brain encodes memory by altering connections existing between the neurons. This need turns on many gene in the regarding neurons.

In the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), neuroscientists have been able to identify a gene, which is known as the Npas4, that is active in brain’s hippocampus- that brain structure which is critical in forming of the long term memories.

This research, which has been described in journal science, could be the breakthrough which will help in indicating and identifying the location of memories in brain. Also it may also open up new possibilities and ways through which altering and may be creating memory could also be done.

Kartik Ramamoorthi has given a statement regarding the study that “We think of Npas4 as the initial trigger that comes on, and then in turn, in the right spot in the brain, it activates all these other downstream targets.” He is graduated from the MIT institute.  Further adding he said “Eventually they are going to modify synapses in a way that`s likely changing synaptic inhibition or some other process that we are trying to figure out.”

Research has been conducted on mice, in which the research found Npas4 is responsible for turning on series of different genes, which modifies brain’s internal neurons that by adjusting in strength of the synapses, that is the connections between the neurons.

McGovern Institute for Brain Research is where the study was conducted in MIT. One of the member Yingxi Lin said “This is a gene that can connect from experience to the eventual changing of the circuit,”.

In the research conducted, mice were given mild shock when mice enters specific chamber. And thereafter in some minutes mice learned to fear chamber and when they entered next time mice entered they then freeze. Thus it was founded that Npas4 was turned on early during the condition. As explained by another researcher Lin said . “This sets Npas4 apart from many other activity-regulated genes. A lot of them are ubiquitously induced by all these different kinds of stimulations; they are not really learning-specific,”

Only some of the genes have been identified which are under the regulation of the Npas4, but the researchers believe that hundreds more also could be. The experiment conducted showed Npas4 binding it to activation sites of the specific genes and directing the enzymes which are called as the to RNA polymerase II to start to copy them.

Npas4 gene when was knocked out, researchers found that mice cannot remember that fearful conditions. Also this kind of effect was also been seen when the Npas4 gene was knocked out in CA3 region of the hippocampus. Though also knocking out the gene in another parts of brain didn’t had any effect. In study the focus was on contextual fear conditioning, researchers do believe Npas4 would also be critical in other forms of learning. Ramamoorthi said “We`re hunting for the memory, and we think we can use Npas4 to mark where it is, That`s because it`s turned on specifically and now we can label the cells and maybe fish out where in the brain the memory is sitting.”