Mar. 20, 2013 — Scientists at UC San Francisco
have discovered how memory recall is linked to decision-making in rats, showing
that measurable activity in one part of the brain occurs when rats in a maze
are playing out memories that help them decide which way to turn. The more they
play out these memories, the more likely they are to find their way correctly
to the end of the maze.
In their study, reported this week in the
journal Neuron, the UCSF researchers implanted electrodes directly on a
region of the rat brain known as the hippocampus, which is already known to
play a key role in the formation and recall of memory. This same region is
active when animals are learning, and it is damaged in people who have
Alzheimer's and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The study showed that when the rats paused before
an upcoming choice, sometimes the hippocampus was more active and sometimes it
was less active. When it was more active it did a better job of recalling
memories of places the animal could go next, and the animal was more likely to
go to the right place.
"We know that considering possibilities is
important for decision-making, but we haven't really known how this happens in
the brain," said neuroscientist Loren Frank, PhD, who led the research.
Frank is an associate professor of physiology and a member of the UCSF Center
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