Molecular mechanisms of memory and learning (original) (raw)

The aim of the present review is to discuss the molecular mechanisms of learning and memory. The first part of the review investigates implicit memory in Aplysia, a marine snail, studied by Eric Kandel, the Nobel Prize winner. This form of learning can be broadly divided into two temporal phases, an early and a late phase. The molecular mechanisms of each phase will be analyzed in separate sections. The second part of the review investigates hippocampal-dependent explicit memory in ammals and the mechanism that underlies it, known as long-term potentiation (LTP). Similar to the molecular mechanisms in Aplysia, LTP is divided into an early and a late phase. However, LTP in mammals is a very complicated phenomenon that depends on the regulation of many molecular pathways. Moreover, the scientific community cannot always reach a consensus on the role of some of these molecular mechanisms in LTP. Nevertheless, it will be demonstrated that both explicit and implicit memory occur at a syn...