Research Team Redefines the Way Brain Keeps Memory
A research team led by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) professor Jung Won-seok and Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI) Dr. Park Hyung-joo has redefined the way the brain of an adult keeps its memory, raising the possibility of overcoming brain diseases such as autism, schizophrenia and dementia.
Funded by the Samsung Future Technology Incubation Program, their research is a completely new approach to brain and cognitive sciences. A synapse, which interconnects neurons to learn and remember information, is replaced with a new synapse during memory formation. Scientists across the world failed to define how the synapse disappears and how the disappearance affects memory formation in the brain. They failed to go beyond the assumption that a microglial cell, which is a neuroglial cell helping the brain maintain its homeostasis, has an effect on memory formation as a synapse remover.
However, the team found out that astrocytes remove synapses more actively than microglial cells. It employed fluorescent protein-based analysis, suppressed the synapse removal function of astrocytes with microglial cells left intact, and found out that abnormal synapses increased rapidly as a result.
“Our findings, in contrast to existing theories, show that synapse removal by astrocytes is essential for brain nerve functions and memory formation,” the team explained, adding, “Our research has already been proved through rat experiments.”