An immune molecule segregates memories in time

Terceros, Andrea; Rajasethupathy, Priya

doi:10.1038/d41586-022-01166-4

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25 May 2022

An immune molecule segregates memories in time

An immune molecule has an unexpected role in memory formation — specifically, in limiting the window of time in which newly forming memories can be contextually linked.

Andrea Terceros ⁰ &
Priya Rajasethupathy ¹

Andrea Terceros
1. Andrea Terceros is in the Laboratory of Neural Dynamics and Cognition, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065, USA.
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Priya Rajasethupathy
1. Priya Rajasethupathy is in the Laboratory of Neural Dynamics and Cognition, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065, USA.
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Memories acquired close together in time often become linked, such that recalling one memory leads to recall of another. For instance, one of us (P.R.) recently visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and remembered that the last time she’d been there, she had walked through Central Park just afterwards and spotted a rare and beautiful snowy owl. The museum and snowy owls had become forever linked in her memory. In 2009, two groups¹^,² observed that neurons in the brain can participate in multiple memory networks that are laid down closely in time, thus enabling memory linking. The activity of a transcription-factor protein called CREB promotes this neural co-allocation, but what limits it? Writing in Nature, Shen et al.³ make the unexpected discovery that the answer lies in an immune molecule that segregates memories by limiting the time available for linking to occur.

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Nature 606, 38-39 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01166-4

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