New pathways to long-term memory formation
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 13-May-2025 20:09 ET (14-May-2025 00:09 GMT/UTC)
Researchers from Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience have discovered a new pathway to forming long-term memories in the brain. Their work suggests that long-term memory can form independently of short-term memory, a finding that opens exciting possibilities for understanding memory-related conditions.
In a provocative new study, scientists challenge a fundamental tenet in neuroscience about the shape of axons -- the long, thin filaments radiating from nerve cells that transmit electrical signals from cell to cell – and propose a new model for understanding how information is transmitted in the brain. The study, led by Shigeki Watanabe of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, was partly conducted in the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Neurobiology course and appears this week in Nature Neuroscience.
From devastating wildfires and landslides to droughts and extreme heat waves, climate-related events disrupt the lives of communities around the world. How these events impact the health of Los Angeles’s vulnerable communities is a question numerous USC researchers are working to solve. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $4.1 million to a USC-led initiative to build a community of transdisciplinary scientists and a robust infrastructure with the goal of advancing solution-oriented climate change adaptation and health research. The center is called CLIMA, short for the CLIMAte-related Exposures, Adaptation and Health Equity Center. CLIMA researchers have been collaborating with USC Dornsife Public Exchange and the City of Los Angeles Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO) to build a visual mapping tool called a StoryMap, which can add narrative context to the city and county’s extreme heat challenges. By combining Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping with accessible climate storytelling, the StoryMap can inform the public about the risks associated with extreme heat, as well as provide resources for and information regarding the City of Los Angeles’ #HeatRelief4LA campaign.