Looking for the engram: Molecular changes associated with memory acquisition and consolidation

BAEZ M. VERÓNICA; FREUDENTHAL, RAMIRO AM; ROMANO, ARTURO

Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience

Frontiers

Año: 2020

Memory trace can be defined as the physical mark of an acquired memory. Several hypotheses have been established trying to determine how the engram is codified and where it is located in different brain structures. It is well known that, after memory acquisition or plasticity induction, protein translation and gene expression is required, as well as protein acetylation, ubiquitination and proteasome activity. These processes take place along several time waves, starting immediately after memory acquisition and continuing during memory consolidation. For this reason, many molecular changes are proposed as markers of the memory trace. Moreover, it has been shown that changes in gene expression, knocking down or overexpression of several proteins in specific brain structures can lead to deficits in memory retrieval. Furthermore, there is evidence that some circuit changes are associated to the memory encoding. However, until today, there has been little evidence to clarify these concepts.