Improving Old Memories

摘要

Can memory be improved? In vivo experiments using pharmacological inhibition of the enzyme protein kinase Mζ (PKMζ) in the insular cortex have shown that long-term conditioned taste aversion memory can be blocked. Now, Shema et al. (p. 1207) show that overexpression of PKMζ in the rat insular cortex enhances memory, including memory that was formed long before the enzyme was overexpressed. The enhancement appears to affect more than a single memory. Thus, modulation of PKMζ can alter memories, even months after the initial encoding.