Banksy, Dali and Engram Cells

01/28/2019 Guess of the day: „ What do Banksy’s artwork & engram cells have in common?“ #MondayMotivation (hint: past week’s news is this week’s art)

Solution: Research published by Pignatelli, Ryan and colleagues in NeuroCellPress demonstrates how memory recall induces a transient increase in engram excitability. The cells can encode and switch between different memory functions, but how exactly is unknown. So, for a short period of time (~1h) we have an enhanced view on our surrounding, enhanced context recognition, potentially crucial for our survival. However, a prolonged excitability of the neurons is most likely unhealthy and this state thus passes.

To read more about this exciting research, see also the preview, actual paper or the Trinity College Dublin press release, which published some of our art along with the article.