New study reveals insight into biology of forgetting

Scientists from the Scripps Research Institute have uncovered potentially important new insights into the molecular biology that underpins the process of forgetting.

A team from the institute's Florida campus has pinpointed neurotransmitters that are essential to the formation of new memories and found that they are also instrumental in eliminating those that have already formed.

By studying the brains of fruit flies, it was discovered that dopamine-based mechanisms are used by the brain to actively erase any memories that have not been flagged as important.

This is the first time forgetting has been studied in depth as an active rather than a passive process, revealing insights that could be used to develop therapies to promote cognition and memory.

Ron Davis, chair of the Scripps research department of neuroscience, said: "Biology isn't designed to do things in a passive way. There are active pathways for constructing things and active ones for degrading things. Why should forgetting be any different?"

Earlier this week, a Portuguese research project revealed that caffeine could play a potentially important role in preventing memory loss suffered by diabetes patients.