Novel mechanism for memory formation discovered How is long-term
memory formed? What goes wrong in cognitive disorders such as
Alzheimer’s disease? Although important scientific advances have
been made towards answering these fundamental questions, the
exact mechanism behind long-term memory formation is still
unclear. Significant research led by Professor Peter Giese from
the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London has
shed some new insight into this matter by discovering a novel
mechanism for memory formation. Currently, the most widely
considered mechanism of memory formation is the enhancement of
transmission at existing connections between neurones, called
synaptic strengthening. This consists of a series of molecular
events such as the activation of certain neurotransmitter and
kinase systems, calcium influx, the induction of gene expression
and the translation and regulation of proteins. These events
seem to be affected in various mouse models of cognitive
disorder. However, it has emerg