The brain cells that keep memories alive

The story so far

1. Jul 8, 2026 Latest

   Researchers at the Institute of Basic Science found that astrocytes control long-term memory persistence through a protein called ankyrin-2 (Ank2). Mice engineered without Ank2 in their astrocytes formed memories completely normally but lost all long-term recall within two weeks while short-term memory stayed intact. The team also built a light-activated genetic tool called Opto-T1 that restores astrocyte function in living mice and successfully boosted long-term memory persistence.

   Today Got Better

2. Feb 11, 2026

   Bukalo and colleagues watched astrocytes in the amygdala track a mouse's fear state in real time. Their calcium signals were needed for the animal to retrieve a fear memory and later to let go of it, work that points these same cells toward conditions like PTSD.

   Nature

3. Nov 6, 2024

   Williamson and colleagues in Benjamin Deneen's lab at Baylor found that learning switches on the c-Fos gene in a specific set of hippocampal astrocytes. Reactivating that group of cells triggered recall, and deleting a single control gene from them erased the memory, making the case that astrocytes are part of the memory trace itself.

   Nature

4. Feb 7, 2024

   A Stanford team mapped the amygdala after fear learning and found gene signatures specific to that memory in both neurons and astrocytes, lasting for weeks. When they cut the crosstalk between the two cell types, the neurons could no longer lay down the long-term memory.

   Nature

5. Sep 6, 2023

   De Ceglia, Alfonso Araque and colleagues sorted hippocampal astrocytes into nine molecular types and found one specialized group carrying the machinery to release glutamate, the brain's main signaling chemical, much like a neuron. Silencing that release changed how the memory circuit behaved during behavior.

   Nature

6. Aug 31, 2022

   The same group tracked astrocytes as mice moved through a familiar space and found the cells ramp up their activity toward a reward spot, but not in a place the animal had never seen. A computer could read the mouse's position from the astrocyte signals alone.

   Nature

7. May 24, 2018

   Adamsky and colleagues in Inbal Goshen's lab at the Weizmann Institute showed that switching astrocytes on was enough, by itself, to strengthen connections in the hippocampus. Activating the cells while mice learned a task sharpened their recall the next day, an early sign that astrocytes do more than support neurons.

   Cell