ArticleNeurobiology of learning and memory2020
The role of neuronal excitability, allocation to an engram and memory linking in the behavioral generation of a false memory in mice.
Article in Neurobiology of learning and memory, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Intrinsic Excitability of Rat Hippocampal Granule Cells Increases Along the Dorsal-to-Ventral Axis.Hippocampus · 2026Article
- Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- NongeneticACS nano · 2026Article
- Old mice fail to integrate a memory update into an existing hippocampal engram.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Learning, sleep replay and consolidation of contextual fear memories: A neural network model.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Functional loss of PKMζ in the dorsal hippocampus potentiates the time-dependent increase in false contextual fear memory and impairs spatial recognition memory in mice.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Engram cell vulnerability in neurodegeneration: from mechanistic insights to therapeutic horizons.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Review
- Writing the Engram: Epigenetic Mechanisms of Memory Allocation.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Review
- Degeneracy Explains Diversity in Interneuronal Regulation of Pattern Separation in Heterogeneous Dentate Gyrus Networks.Function (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Stress disrupts engram ensembles in lateral amygdala to generalize threat memory in mice.Cell · 2025Article
- Update on "Emotion and autobiographical memory": 14 years of advances in understanding functions, constructions, and consequences.Physics of life reviews · 2024Review
- Comparing behaviours induced by natural memory retrieval and optogenetic reactivation of an engram ensemble in mice.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Experience-dependent information routing through the basolateral amygdala shapes behavioral outcomes.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Reactivation of encoding ensembles in the prelimbic cortex supports temporal associations.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Systemic pharmacological suppression of neural activity reverses learning impairment in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Context and Time Regulate Fear Memory Consolidation and Reconsolidation in the Basolateral Amygdala Complex.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Examining memory linking and generalization using scFLARE2, a temporally precise neuronal activity tagging system.Cell reports · 2023Article
- Cell-type-specific optogenetic stimulation of the locus coeruleus induces slow-onset potentiation and enhances everyday memory in rats.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- A timely glimpse of memories to come.Learning & behavior · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
Memory is a constructive, not reproductive, process that is prone to errors. Errors in memory, though, may originate from normally adaptive memory processes. At the extreme of memory distortion is falsely "remembering" an event that did not occur. False memories are well-studied in cognitive psychology, but have received relatively less attention in neuroscience. Here, we took advantage of mechanistic insights into how neurons are allocated or recruited into an engram (memory trace) to generate a false memory in mice using only behavioral manipulations. At the time of an event, neurons compete for allocation to an engram supporting the memory for this event; neurons with higher excitability win this competition (Han et al., 2007). Even after the event, these allocated "engram neurons" remain temporarily (~6 h) more excitable than neighboring neurons. Should a similar event occur in this 6 h period of heightened engram neuron excitability, an overlapping population of neurons will be co-allocated to this second engram, which serves to functionally link the two memories (Rashid et al., 2016). Here, we applied this principle of co-allocation and found that mice develop a false fear memory to a neutral stimulus if exposed to this stimulus shortly (3 h), but not a longer time (24 h), after cued fear conditioning. Similar to co-allocation, the generation of this false memory depended on the post-training excitability of engram neurons such that these neurons remained more excitable during exposure to the neutral stimulus at 3 h but not 24 h. Optogenetically silencing engram neurons 3 h after cued fear conditioning impaired formation of a false fear memory to the neutral stimulus, while optogenetically activating engram neurons 24 h after cued fear conditioning created a false fear memory. These results suggest that some false memories may originate from normally adaptive mnemonic processes such as neuronal excitability-dependent allocation and memory linking.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.