Myelin makes memories

Abstract

Three new studies show that activity-dependent formation of myelin contributes to memory consolidation and recall, possibly by increasing functional coupling between neuronal ensembles encoding experience.

Fig. 1 |. Consolidation and/or recall of fear memory requires new myelin formation.

Fear learning induces the proliferation of OPCs, promotes their maturation into mature oligodendrocytes and thereby increases myelin. This process occurs over a timescale of weeks. The study by Pan and colleagues shows that memory consolidation and retrieval of remote memory requires new myelin formation, possibly to achieve appropriate conduction velocities for functional coupling among spatially distributed engrams.