Author: The main obstacle to understanding the mechanisms of memory is the generally accepted hypothesis that memory is formed and stored in the form of modifications of synaptic connections

Memory: Synaptic or Cellular, That Is the Question. Yuri I. Arshavsky. The Neuroscientist, June 17, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/10738584221086488

Abstract: According to the commonly accepted opinion, memory engrams are formed and stored at the level of neural networks due to a change in the strength of synaptic connections between neurons. This hypothesis of synaptic plasticity (HSP), formulated by Donald Hebb in the 1940s, continues to dominate the directions of experimental studies and the interpretations of experimental results in the field. The universal acceptance of the HSP has transformed it from a hypothesis into an incontrovertible theory. In this article, I show that the entire body of experimental and clinical data obtained in studies of long-term memory in mammals and humans is inconsistent with the HSP. Instead, these data suggest that long-term memory is formed and stored at the intracellular level where it is reliably protected from ongoing synaptic activity, including pathological epileptic activity. It seems that the generally accepted HSP became a serious obstacle to understanding the mechanisms of memory and that progress in this field requires rethinking this doctrine and shifting experimental efforts toward exploring the intracellular mechanisms.

Keywords: declarative memory, synaptic plasticity, long-term potentiation, synaptic stability, epilepsy, concept neurons, epigenetics