We often think of “forgetting” as a negative, the loss of information we should hold onto. Yet, the brain contains a protein molecule that—researchers say—inhibits the retention of memories.
If this research holds true, it means our brain not only actively stores information, but actively deletes it as well.
This ability to forget, scientists report, allows our nervous system to maintain plasticity, or the flexibility to grow, change, and take in new information. They also believe that a disruption of the forgetting process can lead to mental health problems.
This sparks some interesting questions. For instance, does an imbalance of certain proteins in our nervous system have something to do with establishing the repetitive thought patterns of OCD? Since this research is currently restricted to insects, it may be awhile before we know.
Complementary Memory Processes
Our brain sends its messages across synapses, or tiny gaps between two nerve cells. Whether thought transmissions across the synapses are stabilized and stored permanently seems to be up to two complementary proteins:
- The protein called adducin stimulates the growth of synapses and the stabilization of memory.
- The protein called musashi is the molecule that inhibits the stabilization of synaptic connections and de-stabilizes memories.
Healthy remembering and forgetting is, at least partly, a result of the dance between these two proteins. A disruption of the adducin-musashi balance may be responsible for thought abnormalities, and knowing this might lead to new treatments for memory and other cognitive problems.
Active Forgetting
Scientists studying the musashi protein came to their conclusions by genetically modifying some ringworms to be without musashi. They found that both regular and modified ringworms learned new information equally well, but the worms without the musashi proteins—those that de-stabilize memories—remembered more of what they learned.
A few years ago, other researchers studied a protein called Rac. They also concluded that the erasing of memories is an essential, active neurological process. These investigators found that when the Rac protein was blocked in flies, they kept new information longer. When the Rac levels in flies were increased, they forgot information more quickly.
“Learning activates the biochemical formation of memory,” says fly researcher Yi Zhong. “But you need to remove memories for new information to come in. We’ve found that forgetting is an active process to remove memory.”
Photo by Keoni Cabral
Sources: University of Basel via Alpha Galileo ; Science Daily
