Remembering others is an essential ability for us to carry out smooth social behavior.However, the mechanism by which "social memory" that recognizes others is established in the brain was unknown.

　The mouse recognizes the other person by touching the other person's nose and taking the action of sniffing.The research group examined the neural regions activated after this social behavior in mice, using the expression of early response genes as an index.The results showed that gene expression in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and cingulate cortex was required for the fixation of social memory.

　Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of injecting protein synthesis inhibitors into each of these four regions to inhibit gene expression.As a result, no matter which region of gene expression was inhibited, I remembered the other person for about 2 hours, but I could not remember it after one day, so it was found that all 4 regions are necessary for immobilization of social memory. ..

　In addition, mathematical analysis shows that in order to form social memory, a network centered on four regions is formed in the brain, and the hippocampus bundles other regions as the center of the neural network that stores social memory. It was revealed.

　These results suggest that memory is stored in multiple regions of the brain, and that each type of memory stores different regions.It is said that this has brought us closer to elucidating the whole picture of how memory is preserved in the brain.In addition, since social memory is a predisposing factor for determining social behavior (social behavior), it is expected to contribute to the elucidation of the pathophysiology of "autism" and the development of improvement methods from the perspective of social behavior.

Paper Information: [The Journal of Neuroscience] Functional Connectivity of Multiple Brain Regions Required for the Consolidation of Social Recognition Memory