Serial and Parallel Processing During Memory Consolidation
Roberto Agustín Prado-Alcalá · 2019
Despite the great amount of research devoted to the search for the engram, the set of changes in the nervous system that represents stored memory, this endeavor has proven unsuccessful. There are many experimental results, however, that show that the physiological activity of several brain regions are necessary for memory consolidation of instrumental tasks. For example, lesions to the cerebral cortex hippocampus, amygdala, or neostriatum produce marked deficits in a wide variety of conditioned behaviors. These findings indicate that these areas participate in learning and memory, but they do not reveal the location of the engram. Experimental modifications of acetylcholine (ACh) neurotransmission in the neostriatum bring about changes in conditioned behaviors, which are congruent with the view that striatal ACh is involved in memory functions. The data lend strong support to the hypothesis that striatal cholinergic activity is necessary for memory consolidation. Evidence is starting to accumulate, however, that indicates that this hypothesis is only partially correct.