Shining a Light on Memory
Neuroscientist Michael Goard receives funding for new memory research.
Video shows fluorescent proteins make each neuron flash every time it becomes active.
Brains don’t store memories the way computers do, in well-defined chunks of data on a storage medium. In brains, memories are diffuse, distributed over trillions of connections between neurons. Understanding how the brain encodes memories over long periods of time is perhaps one of the paramount pursuits of neuroscience. With a grant from the Whitehall Foundation, UC Santa Barbara neuroscientist Michael Goard hopes to advance this goal by studying spatial memory formation. Founded in 1937, the non-profit organization is dedicated to scholarly research in the life sciences and, more specifically, neurobiology.
