忘却の分子・神経回路メカニズム

Molecular and Neuronal Mechanisms of Forgetting

動物にとって，記憶の保持時間を適切に制御することは，刻々と変化する環境に適応するために重要である。しかし，能動的に忘却するメカニズムは最近になって研究が緒についたところである。この数年の間に，忘却を制御する分子や忘却を促進する細胞がみつかるなどの成果が得られた。そこで，本稿ではモデル動物を用いた能動的な忘却の分子・神経回路機構に関する最近の知見を紹介する。

Abstract

Animals sense several types of information in their environments and some of those information are stored as memories. The retention of these memories must be regulated for the animals to survive continuously changing environments. However, the mechanisms underlying memory forgetting remain to be understood, partly because psychological studies have suggested that forgetting is a passive process. Recent behavioral genetic studies, using model animals, including mice, Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans, have revealed that forgetting is actively regulated in neuronal circuits. In particular, “forgetting cells” non-cell-autonomously accelerate forgetting in other neurons. In this review, we describe recent studies of the mechanisms of forgetting in model animals.