Scientists Show How Exposure to Brief Trauma and Sudden Sounds Form Lasting Memories
NYU Langone HealthResearchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have found how even brief exposure to sudden sounds or mild trauma can form permanent, long-term brain connections, or memories, in a specific region of the brain. Moreover, the research team, working with rats, says it was able to chemically stimulate those biological pathways in the locus coeruleus — the area of the brain best known for releasing the “fight or flight” hormone noradrenaline — to heighten and improve the animals’ hearing.