Engram (neuropsychology)

For other uses, see Engram.

An engram is a unit of cognitive information imprinted in a physical substance, theorized to be the means by which memories are stored[1] as biophysical or biochemical[2] changes in the brain or other biological tissue, in response to external stimuli.

Demonstrating the existence of, and the exact mechanism and location of, neurologically defined engrams has been a focus of persistent research for many decades.[3]

  1. ^ Liu, Xu; Ramirez, Steve; Pang, Petti T.; Puryear, Corey B.; Govindarajan, Arvind; Deisseroth, Karl; Tonegawa, Susumu (22 March 2012). "Optogenetic stimulation of a hippocampal engram activates fear memory recall". Nature. 484 (7394): 381–385. Bibcode:2012Natur.484..381L. doi:10.1038/nature11028. PMC 3331914. PMID 22441246.
  2. ^ Ryan, T. J.; Roy, D. S.; Pignatelli, M.; Arons, A.; Tonegawa, S. (28 May 2015). "Engram cells retain memory under retrograde amnesia". Science. 348 (6238): 1007–1013. Bibcode:2015Sci...348.1007R. doi:10.1126/science.aaa5542. PMC 5583719. PMID 26023136.
  3. ^ Levy, Adam (14 January 2021). "Memory, the mystery". Knowable Magazine. doi:10.1146/knowable-011421-3. Retrieved 25 March 2022.