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Based on previous research, the majority of neuroscientists would tell you that long-term memories are stored in the synapses of the brain and once those deteriorate, the memories are lost.
But according to a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, this commonly held belief might be wrong.
The results of the study, which involved marine snails, show that there was no apparent connection between the development of synapses and the formation of memories.
They have hypothesized that since the synapses aren’t responsible for memory, maybe the memories are kept in the nucleus of neurons in the brain.
Senior author of the study David Glanzman, a professor at UCLA is quoted as saying: “As long as the neurons are still alive, the memory will still be there, which means you may be able to recover some of the lost memories in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.”
Diseases like Alzheimer’s cause the synapses in people’s brains to be destroyed, but the study found that new synapses can be grown to connect the neurons.
The snails used in the study are similar to humans in their molecular and cellular processes, so these results could be a positive development for people who suffer from memory loss.
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