Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Innate immunity in neurons makes memories persist

A population of neurons that engages mechanisms of the innate immune system during memory formation has been uncovered in mice. Surprisingly, inflammatory signalling might pave the way for long-term memory.
  1. Benjamin A. Kelvington

    1. Benjamin A. Kelvington is in the Iowa Neuroscience Institute, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Ted Abel

    1. Ted Abel is in the Iowa Neuroscience Institute, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

How do memories last? Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí pondered this question in his famous work The Persistence of Memory. He also explored the tragic consequences of memory-loss conditions in The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory. As the global population ages and diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia increase, the mechanisms that enable memories to last have captured the attention of neuroscientists. Yet what enables brief experiences, encoded over just seconds, to be replayed again and again during a lifetime remains a mystery. Writing in Nature, Jovasevic and colleagues1 fit a crucial piece into this puzzle by describing molecular mechanisms that are essential for memory and mark a new population of neurons.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 628, 40-42 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00679-4

References

  1. Jovasevic, V. et al. Nature 628, 145–153 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Scoville, W. B. & Milner, B. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 20, 11–21 (1957).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Josselyn, S. A. & Tonegawa, S. Science 367, eaaw4325 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Hemmi, H. et al. Nature 408, 740–745 (2000).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Madabhushi, R. et al. Cell 161, 1592–1605 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Wang, A. G., Son, M., Kenna, E., Thom, N. & Tay, S. Cell Rep. 40, 111159 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Jovasevic, V. et al. iScience 24, 102617 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Han, J. H. et al. Science 316, 457–460 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Lodato, M. A. et al. Science 350, 94–98 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Maatouk, L. et al. Nature Commun. 9, 2450 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

T.A. is on the scientific advisory board of EmbarkNeuro and is a scientific adviser to Aditum Bio and Radius Health.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links