Memory slowly falters as we age. A new study by Dahl and colleagues tests the involvement of a tiny region hidden in the brainstem, the locus coeruleus, which enables cellular processes of learning. Better initial learning in older individuals was related to greater integrity of this region, particularly for the part that is connected to other memory regions in the brain.
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Jacobs, H.I.L. Focus on the blue locus for learning. Nat Hum Behav 3, 1143–1144 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0731-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0731-2