Khaberni - A recent study showed the brain's ability to update memories in a way that allows living organisms to adapt to the ongoing changes in their environment, thus opening potential avenues for dealing with harmful human memories.
A team of neuroscientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) conducted experiments on fruit flies, discovering that simply reintroducing a "sugar reward" could weaken the memories associated with it, without completely erasing them.
Memory flexibility
According to "Medical Express", memory plays a pivotal role in the life of animals as it directs their behavior towards food sources and warns them of dangers.
However, a rapidly changing environment requires a flexible memory that can continuously update its information. When rewards or threats lose their previous meaning, the brain needs to reassess experiences rather than retaining them as they are.
In the experiment, scientists trained fruit flies to associate specific odors with a sugar reward. After some time, they reintroduced the sugar without linking it to any scent, which led to the flies' reduced attraction to the odors they had previously learned to seek.
The memories were not completely erased, but their remnants existed in the brain, and yet their effect on behavior became less significant, indicating the brain's ability to suppress memories instead of deleting them.
The environment determines memory strength
The study showed that the environmental context plays a crucial role in modifying memories; when the flies encountered sugar in a familiar environment, their acquired response weakened, while they maintained their memory in unfamiliar environments or when learning new information at the same time.
And it indicates that the brain relies on environmental cues to determine the timing of memory modification.
The researchers noted that this process does not depend on "dopamine," the neurotransmitter associated with reward and learning, clarifying the existence of multiple neural pathways for memory regulation and recall. Moreover, the reward experience affects all associated memories, serving as a means to reassess the significance of previous experiences when conditions change.
