Silent memory engrams as the basis for retrograde amnesia

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  • Dheeraj S. Roy
    RIKEN-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Biology and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139;
  • Shruti Muralidhar
    RIKEN-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Biology and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139;
  • Lillian M. Smith
    RIKEN-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Biology and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139;
  • Susumu Tonegawa
    RIKEN-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Biology and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139;

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<jats:title>Significance</jats:title> <jats:p>We previously discovered that memory is retrieved robustly from protein synthesis inhibitor-induced retrograde amnesia by optogenetic activation of engram cells. Connectivity of engram cells correlates with memory information storage under amnesia, even though these amnesic engram cells lack learning-induced augmented synaptic strength. We term this state of engrams as “silent engrams.” The significance of this study is threefold: first, the silent state of the engram can last for a prolonged period (at least 8 d post encoding); second, connectivity between engram cell ensembles is causally linked to optogenetic recall and hence memory information storage; and third, there is a molecular genetic method to convert an engram from a silent state to an active state.</jats:p>

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