Researchers at OIST induced a hibernation-like state in mice, erasing over half their synapses, yet the mice retained their memories. This challenges the prevailing hypothesis that memories are physically stored in synaptic connections, suggesting memory encoding may be more robust than previously thought.
Background
Memory storage in the brain has long been theorized to depend on synaptic strengthening and physical changes in neural connections. This study provides unexpected evidence that memories can survive dramatic synaptic restructuring.
- Source
- Ars Technica
- Published
- Aug 22, 2026 at 07:22 PM
- Score
- 7.0 / 10