CREB in cognition

The cellular transcription factor CREB (cAMP response element-binding protein) helps learning and the stabilization and retrieval of fear-based, long-term memories. This is done mainly through its expression in the hippocampus and the amygdala. Studies supporting the role of CREB in cognition include those that knock out the gene, reduce its expression, or overexpress it. The cellular transcription factor CREB (cAMP response element-binding protein) helps learning and the stabilization and retrieval of fear-based, long-term memories. This is done mainly through its expression in the hippocampus and the amygdala. Studies supporting the role of CREB in cognition include those that knock out the gene, reduce its expression, or overexpress it. Research suggests that CREB has a role in the molecular steps that stabilize memory in the brain, including that of emotional memory. Evidence of CREB's role in emotional memory falls into three experimental categories: negative manipulations (where the levels of CREB were lowered), positive manipulations (where the levels of CREB were increased), and non-interventions (where the endogenous levels of CREB were tracked before and after learning). Knockout studies in Aplysia sea slugs indicated that decreasing CREB function blocks long-term changes in synaptic function, but not short-term ones. Changes in synaptic function (i.e., synaptic plasticity) are required for learning and memory As evidence of this, a line of mice with a targeted disruption of the α and δ isoforms of CREB showed intact short-term memory, but disrupted long-term memory in several behavioral tasks, including contextual conditioning and spatial learning in the Morris water maze, two hippocampal-dependent learning tasks. Also, hippocampal electrophysiological studies revealed that the CREB mutation disrupted the stability of synaptic plasticity Genetic studies in Drosophila fruit flies also uncovered a role for CREB in memory, suggesting that CREB has a role in memory conserved evolutionarily.