Long-term memory articles from across Nature Portfolio

This study describes a premotor-hippocampal coupling in episodic memory, revealing how the bodily sensory context and in particular the sense of agency of the observer at encoding is neurally reinstated during the retrieval of past episodes.

Whether specialized neuronal firing in the human MTL predicts successful memory encoding remains unknown. Here, the authors find this to be the case for two distinct populations of single neurons responding to items and locations, respectively.

Forgetting can be an intentional act or an unintentional side effect of other memory processes. In this Review, Fawcett et al. describe intentional and unintentional forgetting in laboratory and real-world settings, highlight alignment across these traditionally siloed research areas, and explore the role of forgetting in certain clinical conditions.

Modulation of glutamate uptake in the rat hippocampus via astroglial GLT-1 improves or impairs spatial objects memory depending on the intensity of learning session as well as the memory phase evaluated, being Arc and BDNF mediators of these effects.

By using multimodal MRI in aging humans, we found that noradrenergic brain regions are associated with episodic memory impairment, whereas dopaminergic areas are implicated in working memory impairment. Unravelling the role of changes in these neurotransmitter systems in age-related memory loss contributes to our understanding of the development of neurodegenerative diseases.

Stegemann et al. have unraveled a long-lasting role for fear engrams in future pain perception. Prefrontal pain and fear representations become entangled following a fearful event. As subsequent painful experiences also reactivate the fear network, silencing the fear engram alone can alleviate both tonic pain and hypersensitivity in chronic pain.

Neuromodulation with specific frequencies at specific brain locations selectively enhances either working memory or long-term memory in older adult humans.

Science engagement can be a daunting prospect. This is especially true for scientists whose work involves animal models, and particularly nonhuman primates. Here, we show that openly explaining our rationale for our neuroscience work involving nonhuman primates — and the legal and ethical regulations that govern animal experimentation — increased public support and understanding, which is crucial for this essential research to continue.