"What happens in the brain to recognize each other?"
Lucas Aschidamini Marcondes, master's student of the Postgraduate Program in Biomedical Gerontology at PUCRS, supervised by Prof. Drª. Jociane de Carvalho Myskiw, a researcher at the Brain Institute of RS, had an article published in the international journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. The study was coordinated by Prof.ª Drª. Cristiane Regina Guerino Furini, with the help of InsCer Memory Center employees.
The ability to recognize other individuals is a basic characteristic of sociable species, like us humans, and also rodents. This ability depends on the memory of social recognition, and is fundamental for the establishment of social relations, for the organization in society and, thus, for survival.
In order to form a socially recognized memory, information is processed by different regions of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex. This region is involved in many functions, such as attention, planning and also in memory. It is known that the prefrontal cortex plays an important role in social interactions, and changes in this region are associated with diseases such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders, which affect social functioning.
Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter responsible for communication between neurons in the central nervous system. However, little is known about the participation of this molecule and its receptors in the prefrontal cortex for the consolidation of social recognition memory.
The study by Lucas Aschidamini Marcondes et al. investigated whether NMDA glutamate and AMPA / kainate receptors in the medial prefrontal cortex of rats are necessary for the consolidation of social recognition memory. The researchers found that both receptors are needed during initial memory consolidation, but that, three hours after learning, only AMPA / kainate receptors are required. The research results shed light on the molecular mechanisms involved in social recognition memory and can help in understanding neuropsychiatric diseases that are characterized by dysfunction in social interactions.
