Saturated fats have a earned their bad rep when it comes to heart health, however, researchers at Johns Hopkins discovered that a sticky lipid occurring naturally at high levels in the brain may help people memorize their grandmother's recipe for cinnamon buns, as well as recall how, years ago, she served them up steaming hot straight from the oven.
In the Oct. 29 issue of Neuron, JHU scientists reveal how palmitate, a fatty acid, marks certain brain proteins -- NMDA receptors -- that need to be activated for long-term memory and learning to take place. The fatty substance directs the receptors to specific locations in the outer membrane of brain cells, which continually strengthen and weaken their connections with each other, sculpting and resculpting new memory circuits.
Moreover, the researchers report, this fatty modification is a reversible process, with some sort of on-off switch, offering possibilities for manipulating it to enhance or even, perhaps, erase memory.
"Before now, no one knew that NMDA receptors change in response to the addition of palmitate," says Richard Huganir, Ph.D., professor and director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins.
Source: Richard Huganir, Ph.D., JHU
Writer: Walaika Haskins