Memory

How do memories last a lifetime when the molecules that form them turn over within days, weeks or months? An interaction between two proteins points to a molecular basis for memory.

By screening films in a brain scanner, neuroscientists discovered a rich library of neural scripts — from a trip through an airport to a marriage proposal — that form scaffolds for memories of our experiences.

Individual cells in the brain light up for specific ideas. These concept neurons, once known as “Jennifer Aniston cells,” help us think, imagine and remember episodes from our lives.

Neuroscience research into people with aphantasia, who don’t experience mental imagery, is revealing how imagination works and demonstrating the sweeping variety in our subjective experiences.

New experiments reveal how the brain chooses which memories to save and add credence to advice about the importance of rest.

New research in social bats raises the intriguing possibility that evolution can reprogram the brain’s “place cells,” which are typically associated with location, to encode all kinds of environmental information.

New research finds that the memories useful for future generalizations are held in the brain separately from those recording unusual events.

The reshuffling of neurons during fruit fly metamorphosis suggests that larval memories don’t persist in adults.

Memories may affect how well the brain will learn about future events by shifting our perceptions of the world.