Researchers at the Human Brain project have refined their human brain model and unveiled the mystery of how memories are formed and the nervous system adapts.
Memories are an integral part of our life. It is not for nothing that the loss of short-term or long-term memory strongly affects the human psyche, and in the first case it can even tear him away from the rest of the world. In a healthy brain, information can be stored for several years, even if acquaintance with it was fleeting. But how does this happen?
Information processing in the brain takes place in neurons that are connected by synapses. Each modification of these synapses has an impact on how we remember things or respond to certain stimuli. One way to modify neural circuits is through the process of synaptic plasticity, whereby certain synapses are either strengthened or weakened over time in response to neural activity.
By analyzing the networks of biochemical reactions that underlie synaptic modification, scientists from the Human Brain Project, which brought together researchers from different European universities, were able to gain new knowledge about the mechanisms of plasticity.
In neurons, external and internal information processing occurs through the transmission of signals through synaptic networks. It is they who determine synaptic plasticity. Sometimes even individual molecules - enzymes or proteins - are capable of triggering computing power on these networks. One of these molecules is the mammalian adenylate cyclase (AC) family of enzymes, which can translate extracellular signals into the intracellular molecule of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), one of the main cellular signaling molecules.
In their work, the neuroscientists of the project found that the brain produces nine variants of AC proteins. One of these, AC5, is the dominant form in the striatum, a structure involved in memory, behavior, and reward for learning new skills. During training, cAMP production is critical to strengthening the synapses connecting the neurons of the cerebral cortex to the striatum. In addition, it turned out that the formation of these bonds depends on several systems, such as dopamine and acetylcholine.
Author: Nikita Shevtsov