Neurons stained green and red appear over a black background

Plasticity and Memory

Two core and deeply intertwined themes of research in The Picower Institute are investigations of learning and memory, and of plasticity, the ability of neurons to edit their connections in response to experience. The gallery below features discoveries many of our labs have made in 18 areas of research under these important themes.

Long-term potentiation in memory

A cartoon depicts a synapse using bulbous blue axon and dendrite projections nearly meeting on their ends

Epigenetic loss and rescue of memory recall

Three vertical panels show bumpy neural branches. The degree of bumps differs from panel to paneland bumps are denoted by yellow arrows.

Cortical mechanisms guiding perception, learning and action

On a black background there is a tangle of red and green stained neurons

Engrams: mapping and manipulating memories

Two rows show saggital views of a mouses brain lit up in speckles of many different colors corresondeing to hundreds of brain regions. A scale shows that as colors become warmer, the regions were more likely to be involved in memory.

Importance to memory of replay and sleep

Four panels show figure eight shapes in mostly blue but areas of warmer colors on a white background.

Adult dendritic plasticity

Six panels show neurons stained in green or red colors to inidicae the presence of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter

Time and events in memory

Two panels show a stripe of warm colors running top left to bottom right through a blue background. The left one, labeled light off, is very tight and organized. The right one, labeled light on, is very diffuse and messy.

The machinery of neural communication

Bright green and bright blue dots line two lengths of a fly neuromuscular junction

Genes & plasticity in memory

In four panels we see neurons on a black background stained in red, green or yellow colors.

Hippocampus as an interregional memory hub

Four black panels show red-stained cells.

Silent Engrams: Distinctions between memory storage and recall

A hippocampal slice with green neurons representing a memory engram

Visual Recognition Memory

A blue coronal mouse brain section shows green highlighting in the visual cortex

‘Rewiring’ cortical circuits

A dendrite lit up yellow-green snakes from the lower left to the upper right

How synapses change

In panels side by side, two twig-like neurons stained green stretch across a black background. The one on the right is the more branchy of the two.

CPG15 (“Neuritin”)

A grid of microscope snapshots shows dendritic spines appearing and disappearing over a 42-day period

Emotions and Memory

An area of brain tissue mostly glows green but has a red patch in the middle

Inhibitory synapse dynamics

In a square left panel we see a red neuron with sprawling red branches. In a vertical right panel we zoom in on a branch and see little yellow and white spots along its length

Breaking DNA in health and disease

Four panels in a 2 by 2 grid show cells stained in different colors to denote the presence of DNA double-stranded breaks

Plasticity and ‘metaplasticity’ in amblyopia

A cartoon of a man seen from overhead shows his brain with two eyes, yellow or green, sending flashes of input to the back of the brain

Brain waves and cognition

Three bell curve shaped lines on a graph - one red, one blue and one black