Total Recall

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A new study centering on a little bird species is helping scientists uncover new details about the brain’s mysterious ability to create and store memories, Popular Science reported.

Research has shown that the brain’s hippocampus is integral for storing episodic memories, such as recalling where a car is parked or food is kept. But it’s unclear how these memories are encoded in the brain.

For their study, a research team looked into the brains of black-capped chickadees, an avian species that they have described as “memory geniuses.”

These puffy-looking birds live in cold climates and do not migrate over the winter, which means they need to store food during the warmer seasons. This also means they have to remember where exactly they put their stashes.

In their experiments, the team recreated the birds’ natural habitat in a lab and monitored their hippocampus activity through an implanted recording system. They would monitor the chickadees’ brain activity while they moved freely in their surroundings, stashing food and later searching for it.

Researchers noticed that the birds’ hippocampal neurons flared up in unique patterns every time they stored food in specific locations. They described these patterns as “barcodes” that activated when the bird recalled cached food, serving as specific labels for individual memories.

The barcode-like patterns are distinct from other hippocampal neurons called place cells, which encode location memories. They remain separate even when items are stored in the same location at different times, or in nearby locations in rapid succession.

While the mechanics of these patterns and how they drive behavior remain unclear, the authors hope that further study could show whether this barcoding method is present in other species, including humans.

“If you think about how people define themselves, who they think they are, their sense of self, then episodic memories of particular events are central to that,” said co-author Selmaan Chettih. “That’s what we’re trying to understand.”