Really interesting evidence regarding the mechanics of memory, specifically regarding cognitive adaptability.
Dendritic integration of sensory and reward information facilitates learning
Dorsal Stream/Ventral Stream, yadda yadda yadda.
I actually am really uncomfortable with the assumptions in this one, but I’m including it because I’ve a strong suspicion this will be contextually relevant to some things in the very near future.
Identification of potential astrocytes in the teleost brain
Astrocytes can’t be responsible for “memory” since they aren’t in teleosts (vertebrate progenitors)! Oh.
Further, MCU-enriched mitochondria in CA2 distal dendrites are larger compared to mitochondria in CA2 proximal apical dendrites and neighboring CA1 apical dendrites. Genetic knockdown of MCU in CA2 resulted in smaller mitochondria in CA2 distal dendrites, indicating that MCU expression plays a role in regulating mitochondrial mass in CA2. MCU overexpression in neighboring CA1 led to larger mitochondria preferentially in proximal dendrites compared to distal dendrites and GFP controls.
Huh. Big Calcium/Little Calcium?
Excitatory effect of biphasic kHz field stimulation on CA1 pyramidal neurons in slices
Now this is curious. I’m interested in seeing this against cortical tissue, “healthy” and “dementia” under full EEG or maybe MRI.
Pretty cool to see this idea supported with data. This provides an interesting pseudo constant for reference when examining information storage in the brain. This also sets “memory” or “crystalized intelligence” as an artifact of spine morphology. Any bets on whether someone will come up with the idea of ablating away “trauma” by modifying spines in the amygdala or habenula complexes within the next 12 months?