BACKGROUND The idea that memory is stored as enduring changes in the brain dates
back at least to the time of Plato and Aristotle (circa 350 BCE), but its scientific articulation …

One leading hypothesis suggests that memories are stored in ensembles of neurons (or
'engram cells') and that successful recall involves reactivation of these ensembles. A logical …

Neuronal ensembles that hold specific memory (memory engrams) have been identified in
the hippocampus, amygdala, or cortex. However, it has been hypothesized that engrams of …

Synaptic plasticity, the activity-dependent change in neuronal connection strength, has long
been considered an important component of learning and memory. Computational and …

While initial encoding of contextual memories involves the strengthening of hippocampal
circuits, these memories progressively mature to stabilized forms in neocortex and become …

Sleep spindles are burstlike signals in the electroencephalogram (EEG) of the sleeping
mammalian brain and electrical surface correlates of neuronal oscillations in thalamus. As …

Episodic memories initially require rapid synaptic plasticity within the hippocampus for their
formation and are gradually consolidated in neocortical networks for permanent storage …

In contextual fear conditioning, experimental subjects learn to associate a neutral context
with an aversive stimulus and display fear responses to a context that predicts danger …

A new theory about the origins of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in
the evolutionary transition to basic consciousness. What marked the evolutionary transition …

In the hippocampus, spatial maps are formed by place cells while contextual memories are
thought to be encoded as engrams,,,,–. Engrams are typically identified by expression of the …