Genetic analyses of the molecular and neuronal mechanisms for the regulation of forgetting

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Animals show a variety of behavioral plasticity, in which animals change their behavior dependent on their environments. Those behavioral plasticity must be sustained for an appropriate time to survive. However, the neuronal and molecular mechanisms of forgetting of memories are poorly understood. Therefore, we studied on the forgetting of olfactory adaptation in C. elegans as a model for the behavioral plasticity. We found that the forgetting of the olfactory adaptation is actively regulated by the environmental conditions before and after conditioning. In addition, we identified a pair of neurons that secrete signals for the forgetting of the olfactory adaption in other sensory neurons. These results suggested that the forgetting is actively regulated by the neuronal communications.