Origin of Long-Term Image Memory

Abstract

As was indicated previously, we have observed long-term memory for the location of food that is apparent for many days after its perception, only if the animal had been brought to the place of food so that it could eat or smell the latter. We have already stated that the possibility of reproduction of the image of the location of food after several hours, days, or even months following a single perception cannot be based on a set of structural or functional changes of association neuronal circuits of the cortex; rather, more or less prolonged retention of the image of the food object must be based on molecular and submolecular changes in the cytoplasm of cells, first of all in the postsynaptic regions of the association pyramidal neurons. These changes must be determined by the synthesis of a special protein that participates in the plastic changes of the postsynaptic membrane.