What is memory? The present state of the engram

Mu ming Poo, Michele Pignatelli, Tomás J. Ryan, Susumu Tonegawa, Tobias Bonhoeffer, Kelsey C. Martin, Andrii Rudenko, Li Huei Tsai, Richard W. Tsien, Gord Fishell, Caitlin Mullins, J. Tiago Gonçalves, Matthew Shtrahman, Stephen T. Johnston, Fred H. Gage, Yang Dan, John Long, György Buzsáki, Charles Stevens

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

244 Scopus citations

Abstract

The mechanism of memory remains one of the great unsolved problems of biology. Grappling with the question more than a hundred years ago, the German zoologist Richard Semon formulated the concept of the engram, lasting connections in the brain that result from simultaneous "excitations", whose precise physical nature and consequences were out of reach of the biology of his day. Neuroscientists now have the knowledge and tools to tackle this question, however, and this Forum brings together leading contemporary views on the mechanisms of memory and what the engram means today.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number40
JournalBMC Biology
Volume14
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 19 2016
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Structural Biology
  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Physiology
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • Plant Science
  • Developmental Biology
  • Cell Biology

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