Not neurons, but synapses, form working memory, 'hold' info : Study

A network of neurons 'holds' the information by making short-lived changes in the pattern of their connections, or synapses.

Scientists have uncovered details about the functioning of the working memory, throwing light on how information is 'held' in the brain.

Neuroscientists at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, have found that a network of neurons 'holds' the information by making short-lived changes in the pattern of their connections, or synapses, the study said.

Between the time you read the Wi-Fi password off the café's menu board and the time you can get back to your laptop to enter it, you have to 'hold' it in mind. This is a classic case of working memory in action that researchers have strived for decades to explain.

Scientists compared measurements of brain cell activity in an animal performing a working memory task with the output of various computer models representing two theories of the underlying mechanism for holding information in mind. The study has been published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

The results strongly favoured the newer notion that a network of neurons stores the information by making temporary changes to their synaptic patterns. They contradicted the traditional alternative that memory is maintained by neurons remaining persistently active, like an idling engine.

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While both the models allowed for information to be 'held' in mind, only the versions that allowed for synapses to transiently change connections, or "short-term synaptic plasticity", produced neural activity patterns that mimicked what was actually observed in real brains at work, the study said.