Aspects of the search for neural mechanisms of memory

The search for neural mechanisms of memory has been under way for more than a century. The pace quickened in the 1960s when investigators found that training or differential experience leads to significant changes in brain neurochemistry, anatomy, and electrophysiology. Many steps have now been identified in the neurochemical cascade that starts with neural stimulation and ends with encoding information in long-term memory. Applications of research in this field are being made to child development, successful aging, recovery from brain damage, and animal welfare. Extensions of current research and exciting new techniques promise novel insights into mechanisms of memory in the decades ahead.