Topic: memory acquisition

Many proposed neural circuits for learning are theoretically well-grounded but have limited biological evidence to support them. Emerging anatomical and functional data from neurons in the fruit fly brain allows us to identify interconnections in the mushroom body neuropil that form an 'incentive circuit', supporting rich dynamics of memory acquisition, consolidation and forgetting. In addition, new insights into dopamine function in the fruit fly brain motivate a novel 'dopaminergic plasticity rule' that alters the weights between input sensory patterns and output neurons of the mushroom body

How is it that some memories fade in a day while others last forever? The formation of long-lasting (remote) memories depends on the coordinated activity between the hippocampus and frontal cortices, but the timeline of these interactions is debated. Astrocytes, star-shaped glial cells, sense and modify neuronal activity, but their role in remote memory is scarcely explored. We manipulated the activity of hippocampal astrocytes during memory acquisition and discovered it impaired remote, but not recent, memory retrieval. We also revealed a massive recruitment of cortical-projecting hippocampal