A new study in mice identifies a gene that is critical for short-term memory but functions in a part of the brain not traditionally associated with memory.
The study, “A Thalamic Orphan Receptor Drives Variability in Short Term Memory,” was published on Sept. 29 in the journal Cell.
To discover new genes and brain circuits that are important for short-term memory, the researchers turned to studying genetically diverse mice, rather than inbred mice commonly used in research.
“We needed a population that is diverse enough to be able to answer the question of what genetic differences might account for variation in short-term memory,” said Praveen Sethupathy ’03, associate professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, director of the Cornell Center for Vertebrate Genomics, and a senior author of the study.
Priya Rajasethupathy ’04, the Jonathan M. Nelson Family…
