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We all love getting something new. But then we have to move around our current clutter to find a place for it. Well, looks like things work the same way in the brain. Because according to a study published in the journal Cell, newborn neurons in the brain’s memory center make room for new memories by moving out the old ones.
我們都喜歡得到一些新鮮玩意兒，不過接下來我們就得收拾收拾，找個地方把它放起來。恩，怎么說呢，這和我們大腦記憶的工作原理差不多。根據(jù)發(fā)表在《細胞》雜志上的一項研究報告，大腦海馬體的新生神經元會清除舊有的記憶以接納新的記憶。
Ten years ago, scientists discovered that the brain makes new neurons well into adulthood. These cells arise in the hippocampus, a brain region associated with learning and memory. So everyone figured these new neurons must help make new memories, although no one knew how.
十年前，科學家們已經發(fā)現(xiàn)大腦會不斷生成新的神經元，尤其在成年之后。大腦海馬體也會不斷生成新的神經元，而大腦的這塊區(qū)域負責的是人類的學習和記憶。所以，新生神經元必定與人類記憶的形成有關，然而其中的具體原理則一直沒有搞清楚。
Working with rodents, researchers watched what happens when they either prevented neurons from being born or made them sprout faster. They found that new neurons help move older memories out of the hippocampus and into long-term storage in the neocortex. Such shuffling, they think, may free up space in the hippocampus and increase its capacity for taking in something new. The new memories in the study happened to be fearful ones, but the researchers think the process applies to all memories stored in the hippocampus. Which means your brain is probably moving stuff around right now so you can remember this story.
研究者們在小白鼠身上進行了實驗，他們先是對一部分小白鼠生成新的神經元進行抑制，接著反過來刺激另一部分小白鼠加速生成新的神經元，并在此相對過程中進行觀察。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)新生神經元會在搬運記憶的過程中起到作用，那些舊有的記憶會從海馬體內被轉移到大腦皮層以得到長期的保存。研究者認為，這一記憶轉移的過程，能夠對大腦海馬體內的空間進行清理，以增加大腦接受新事物所需的記憶容量。盡管目前只是從動物實驗中得出這一結論，實驗中小白鼠所形成的新記憶大概不怎么愉快，不過研究者們相信這種記憶轉移的過程適用于各種貯存在海馬體內的記憶。這意味著，此刻你的大腦很可能就在搬運一些老物件，好讓你記住這一嶄新的生物學發(fā)現(xiàn)。
