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In this Perspective, the author examines how reading and writing the neural code may be linked. He reviews evidence defining the nature of neural coding of sensory input and asks how these constraints, particularly precise timing, might be critical for approaches that seek to ‘write the neural code’ through the artificial control of microcircuits to activate downstream structures.
In their Perspective article, Lattal and Wood discuss the latest progresses on behavioral features of persistent memory formation, and how epigenetics is forcing a re-evaluation of behavioral and molecular distinctions between memory extinction and memory reconsolidation.