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Alzheimer's disease

Lost memories found

Nature volume 531, pages 450–451 (2016)Cite this article

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Enhancing synaptic connections between neurons in the brain's hippocampus that are normally activated during memory formation rescues memory deficits in a mouse model of early Alzheimer's disease. See Letter p.508

Some 44 million people worldwide are affected by the neurodegenerative disorder Alzheimer's disease or related dementia1. Episodic memory decline in the early stages of disease often precedes biological hallmarks such as the abnormal accumulation of amyloid-β and tau proteins. It is also better correlated than these traits with defects that occur in the synaptic connections between neurons in patients' brains2. However, whether this memory impairment reflects a failure to encode new memories or an inability to retrieve stored ones is not known. In a fascinating paper on page 508 of this issue, Roy et al.3 shed light on the matter, rescuing synaptic and memory deficits in a mouse model of early Alzheimer's disease by reactivating an ensemble of neurons that had been previously activated by experience.

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Figure 1: Light-induced rescue of episodic memory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Prerana Shrestha and Eric Klann are in the Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA.,

    Prerana Shrestha & Eric Klann

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  1. Prerana Shrestha
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  2. Eric Klann
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Correspondence to Prerana Shrestha or Eric Klann.

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Shrestha, P., Klann, E. Lost memories found. Nature 531, 450–451 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17312

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