What physical changes occur in the brain when a memory is made?

A team of researchers at the University of Southern California has, for the first time, answered this question by inducing a memory in a larval zebrafish and then mapping changes in their transparent heads with brain cells lit up like Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

After six years of research, they made the groundbreaking discovery that learning causes synapses, the connections between neurons, to proliferate in some areas and disappear in others rather than merely changing their strength, as commonly thought. These changes in synapses may help explain how memories are formed and why certain kinds of memories are stronger than others.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was led by USC’s Don Arnold, Scott E. Fraser and Carl Kesselman.

To read more, visit https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2022/01/usc-team-shows-how-memories-are-stored-in-the-brain-with-potential-impact-on-conditions-like-ptsd.