"MEMORY MOLECULE" STORES MEMORIES IN NEOCORTEX PKMzeta Required for Memory to Endure
Aug 17, 2007
The memory storage molecule - PKMzeta - maintains long-term memories in the neocortex and its presence is continually required in order for the memory to endure, according to a finding by researchers at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel and SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. The study results were published in the current edition of Science Êmagazine ( www.sciencemag.org ). The title of the paper is "Rapid Erasure of Long-Term Memory Associations in Cortex by an Inhibitor of PKMzeta."
It was previously determined that PKMzeta in the hippocampus - an area of the brain involved in navigation and the initial storage of memory - was necessary to preserve spatial memory; but little was known about PKMzeta activity in the neocortex, the part of the brain thought to be responsible for permanently storing most long-term memories, including those required for higher-level cognitive functions, such as language and complex thought.
This new finding - that inhibiting PKMzeta causes the rapid loss of neocortical memories
learned even weeks before- means that persistent phosphorylation by PKMzeta in the
neocortex is necessary to store these long-term memories and has potential clinical
significance, for example, in the field of cognitive enhancement.
Prior research on the memory storage molecule was conducted at SUNY Downstate by Drs.
Todd Sacktor and Andre Fenton and their team. Science magazine called their research
one of the top ten science stories of the year.
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About SUNY Downstate Medical Center
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, founded in 1860, was the first medical school in the United States to bring teaching out of the lecture hall and to the patient’s bedside. A center of innovation and excellence in research and clinical service delivery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, School of Public Health, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively.
SUNY Downstate ranks twelfth nationally in the number of alumni who are on the faculty of American medical schools. More physicians practicing in New York City have graduated from SUNY Downstate than from any other medical school.