CLEVELAND, May 5 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they are the first to find a form of synaptic memory in the olfactory bulb -- the part of the brain that processes the sense of smell.
Case Western Reserve University Associate Professor Ben Strowbridge and doctoral student Yuan Gao noted that during the 1970s, scientists discovered synapses could change their strength following brief periods of activity. That process, called long-term potentiation, is the leading candidate to explain how we store information about specific places, names and events.
While LTP has been found in nearly every part of the mammalian brain, it was not identified in the olfactory bulb.
Gao and Stowbridge used a home-built laser microscope to determine the olfactory bulb does, in fact, have LTP. The specialized microscope using an advanced imaging technique called "2-photon excitation" enabled the researchers to see entire brain cells and then test whether different types of inputs to the cell could mediate olfactory memory.
"The real surprise in the study was the specific brain connection that changed following experience. It was a rarely-studied brain projection from the cortex back to the olfactory bulb" said Strowbridge.
The study is to appear in the June issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience and is currently available online at the journal's Web site.
