Consolidation: Fragility on the Road to the Engram

Yadin Dudai task A and the training on task B: groups trained on task B 5 min, 1 hr, or 4 hr after task A displayed progressively Department of Neurobiology The Weizmann Institute of Science better retention, respectively, of task A when tested a day later. The conclusion was that motor memory Rehovot 76100 Israel needed several hours to consolidate. Although there were earlier reports on retrograde in-It took the Muses, daughters of Memory, a single en-terference in motor tasks, the data of Brashers-Krug et al. (1996) are apparently the first to show a rapid counter with Hesiod on Mount Helicon to breathe into the poet divine voice and knowledge. Yet for most of transformation with time of human motor memory from a fragile to a more stable state. To students of animal us, who are not granted the privilege to mingle with the immortals, learning is often a much more lengthy, memory, it might not seem too surprising: they often encounter brief consolidation windows immediately complicated, and frustrating process. Even if we do devote to training sufficient time and attention, memory after training their pet organisms on procedural tasks. But to investigators of the human brain, it is reassuring may still take its own obscure path and betray us. And as if the burden of forgetfulness stemming from the indeed that a common denominator is found between different forms of memory. Yet this should not be taken continuing passage of time is not enough, the period immediately after learning also contributes its share to to imply that consolidation is a unitary process; rather, it is a family of processes embodied at multiple levels the fragility of our engrams. It has long been recognized that fresh memories are particularly labile and prone to of organization of the brain. The time windows of consolidation that we detect and the mechanisms that we tap interference ranging from normal sensory distractions to disease and drugs (reviewed by Squire, 1987). This in these time windows depend on our selection of the species, the memory task, and the level of analysis. brittle initial period in the life of a memory is assumed to reflect a sensitive step in consolidation, i.e., progressive Memories: Does the Window Close? Incentive to delve into research on consolidation and stabilization of the newly acquired internal representation and of processes that ensure its retrieval (reviewed substantial support for its existence came …