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      Emotional enhancement of memory: how norepinephrine enables synaptic plasticity

      review-article
      1 , , 1
      Molecular Brain
      BioMed Central

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          Abstract

          Changes in synaptic strength are believed to underlie learning and memory. We explore the idea that norepinephrine is an essential modulator of memory through its ability to regulate synaptic mechanisms. Emotional arousal leads to activation of the locus coeruleus with the subsequent release of norepineprine in the brain, resulting in the enhancement of memory. Norepinephrine activates both pre- and post-synaptic adrenergic receptors at central synapses with different functional outcomes, depending on the expression pattern of these receptors in specific neural circuitries underlying distinct behavioral processes. We review the evidence for noradrenergic modulation of synaptic plasticity with consideration of how this may contribute to the mechanisms of learning and memory.

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          Most cited references73

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          The molecular biology of memory storage: a dialogue between genes and synapses.

          E R Kandel (2001)
          One of the most remarkable aspects of an animal's behavior is the ability to modify that behavior by learning, an ability that reaches its highest form in human beings. For me, learning and memory have proven to be endlessly fascinating mental processes because they address one of the fundamental features of human activity: our ability to acquire new ideas from experience and to retain these ideas over time in memory. Moreover, unlike other mental processes such as thought, language, and consciousness, learning seemed from the outset to be readily accessible to cellular and molecular analysis. I, therefore, have been curious to know: What changes in the brain when we learn? And, once something is learned, how is that information retained in the brain? I have tried to address these questions through a reductionist approach that would allow me to investigate elementary forms of learning and memory at a cellular molecular level-as specific molecular activities within identified nerve cells.
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            Synaptic plasticity and memory: an evaluation of the hypothesis.

            Changing the strength of connections between neurons is widely assumed to be the mechanism by which memory traces are encoded and stored in the central nervous system. In its most general form, the synaptic plasticity and memory hypothesis states that "activity-dependent synaptic plasticity is induced at appropriate synapses during memory formation and is both necessary and sufficient for the information storage underlying the type of memory mediated by the brain area in which that plasticity is observed." We outline a set of criteria by which this hypothesis can be judged and describe a range of experimental strategies used to investigate it. We review both classical and newly discovered properties of synaptic plasticity and stress the importance of the neural architecture and synaptic learning rules of the network in which it is embedded. The greater part of the article focuses on types of memory mediated by the hippocampus, amygdala, and cortex. We conclude that a wealth of data supports the notion that synaptic plasticity is necessary for learning and memory, but that little data currently supports the notion of sufficiency.
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              Memory--a century of consolidation.

              J McGaugh (2000)
              The memory consolidation hypothesis proposed 100 years ago by Müller and Pilzecker continues to guide memory research. The hypothesis that new memories consolidate slowly over time has stimulated studies revealing the hormonal and neural influences regulating memory consolidation, as well as molecular and cellular mechanisms. This review examines the progress made over the century in understanding the time-dependent processes that create our lasting memories.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Mol Brain
                Molecular Brain
                BioMed Central
                1756-6606
                2010
                13 May 2010
                : 3
                : 15
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, Massachusetts 02478, USA
                Article
                1756-6606-3-15
                10.1186/1756-6606-3-15
                2877027
                20465834
                73bfd549-fca1-4685-b0b1-55c3f60491ae
                Copyright ©2010 Tully and Bolshakov; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 23 November 2009
                : 13 May 2010
                Categories
                Review

                Neurosciences
                Neurosciences

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