The correlation between changes in cell assembly activity and memory strength

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K19426
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 51:Brain sciences and related fields
• Research Institution: University of Toyama
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Akinobu 富山大学, 学術研究部医学系, 助教 (40424684)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 記憶 / セルアセンブリ / 睡眠 / 多脳領域

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have found that sleep plays an important role in repetitive associative learning, in which memories are strengthened with each successive learning experience. However, it is unclear which brain regions induce qualitative memory transitions during sleep and with what neural activity changes.
We found that multiple regions are involved in repetitive associative learning and that each brain region is required at different times. We have also developed a system to capture the activity of the neuronal populations active during learning from these multiple brain regions during sleep. Using this novel system, we succeeded in measuring the activity of specific neuronal populations from multiple brain regions in real time.

Free Research Field

脳科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の成果は、記憶の本質的な仕組みの理解へと近づくとともに、学習・環境の変化に対応し、柔軟に情報を変換する脳高次機能を知ることにも繋がる。また、生命維持に必須でありながら未だその働きの全貌が明らかになっていない、睡眠の役割とメカニズムの解明の一助となりうる。このように、本研究は記憶と睡眠両分野の橋渡しとなる研究であり、今後の両分野の発展に大いに貢献できる。
また、本実験を遂行するために構築したシステムは、我々の標的とする脳領域以外にも容易にかつ迅速に適用でき、記憶のみならず、様々な脳機能と行動表現の関連を検証することが可能である。