Author(s)

Yijie Gong, Che Liu, Xiaofei Liu

Corresponding Author

Yijie Gong

ABSTRACT

Brain function research has always been a very attractive field, among which there have been many related studies on the physiological mechanism of learning and memory. The brain is divided into several regions, many of which work together to form, store and invoke memories. The hippocampus is involved in the formation of declarative memory. The received information is processed, filed, and temporarily stored in the hippocampus, and information with sufficient repetitions or stimulation intensity can be transferred to the cerebral cortex for long-term storage. Changes in synaptic morphology and number based on long-term potentiation (LTP) are important physiological characterization of memory formation in hippocampus. This process involves a variety of cellular pathways and gene expression regulation, the role of many important protein genes and target genes on LTP is the key to study the molecular mechanism of memory. This paper will focus on the molecular mechanism of glutamate receptor gene, immediately early genes (IEGs) and cyclin AMP response element binding protein (CREB) gene. The diversity of these genes in the population may represent diversity in the ability to learn and remember. In addition to classical genetic mechanisms at the gene level, memory formation also involves epigenetics, such as DNA methylation and non-coding RNA. These epigenetic modifications also regulate memory formation by regulating the expression of related genes. But this way is more susceptible to environmental influences, which provides an evolutionary basis for the intergenerational inheritance of acquired memory.

KEYWORDS

Hippocampal memory, Genetic memory, Mechanism of memory inheritance, Epigenetic memory