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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 24, 2026

A Real-world What-Where-When Memory Test

A Real-world What-Where-When Memory Test

Published on: May 16, 2017

On the evolution of memory: a time for clocks.

Jason R Gerstner¹

¹Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience

|March 10, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The earliest biological memory traces (engrams) may stem from ancient circadian rhythm mechanisms. These conserved pathways likely evolved into complex learning and memory systems in the brain.

Keywords:

excitability metabolism sleep transcription translation

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Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Evolutionary Biology
Chronobiology

Background:

Biological systems have evolved mechanisms to encode past events, forming the basis of memory.
Phylogenetically conserved mechanisms, such as circadian rhythms, are fundamental to biological processes and may underlie more complex behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore the evolutionary origins of memory engrams.
To investigate the potential link between circadian rhythm mechanisms and the development of learning and memory.

Main Methods:

Examining the role of conserved molecular signaling pathways, like the cAMP/MAPK/CREB cascade, in both circadian rhythms and memory formation.
Reviewing evidence for time-of-day dependent changes in neural plasticity (e.g., long-term potentiation) in key brain regions.

Main Results:

The cAMP/MAPK/CREB pathway is integrated with circadian clocks and influences memory.
Long-term potentiation and circadian rhythmicity show time-dependent variations in the suprachiasmatic nucleus and hippocampus.
Similar processes underlying neural plasticity in simpler circuits may have been repurposed in higher-order brain regions during evolution.

Conclusions:

Circadian rhythm mechanisms represent a potential evolutionary precursor to memory engrams.
Conserved pathways involved in circadian rhythms may provide a foundation for learning and memory across species.
This suggests testable hypotheses regarding the existence of long-term potentiation and metaplasticity in diverse species via conserved neural pathways.