Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: How do neural circuits change to incorporate newly learned events? After decades of research, we now have a good understanding of the diversity and duration of memory types, the context-specifics of learning regimes, and the brain areas that are likely to be involved. However, we are still far from a mechanistic understanding of the neural activity required to transform new behavioral experiences into long term memory accessed during recall events. What kind of network activity is required to affect these wide-spread changes in neuronal circuitries? Among current theories of memory in mammals, one of the most intriguing is concerned with the role of large-scale synchronous neural activity, which is thought to enable the transfer of information from the hippocampus to numerous regions of the neocortex. In this contribution, we first review sleep, learning, and memory in birds before highlighting evidence that large-scale synchronous neural activity also exists in the avian brain, making the case that by examining these questions from a comparative research perspective, we gain important insight into the canonical features of memory consolidation.
DOI: 10.31083/jin50421
Author: Janie M. Ondracek
Institution: Technical University of Munich
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,900
Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Award: G4115941122
OpenAlex ID: W7162879229