Structural traces of past experience in the cerebral cortex

It is widely assumed that changes in the connections between neurons mediate the integration and storage of information in the brain and thereby underlie our ability to learn and remember. In particular, long-term memory is thought to rely on a structural reorganisation of neuronal circuits, but the proof for such a mechanism in the complex mammalian brain remains elusive. Recent advances in scientists' ability to follow structural dynamics of neuronal networks in the intact brain in vivo by means of 2-photon laser scanning microscopy has provided new insight into how information about new experiences might be stored in brain circuits.