Learning changes the connections between nerve cells, linking synaptic plasticity to memory storage. Experiments with the sea slug Aplysia helped researchers investigate the cellular and molecular basis of those changes.
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41:06cosmos. 1970 discovery of synaptic plasticity. >> Yes. Um you know We've heard about heavy and learning which is like you know neurons that fire together, wire together. This is how neural networks learn things um neurons that are correlated. The synapses should get bigger. But how exactly does that happen >> from a biochemistry perspective? This is neurologist Eric Kandell at New York University. Um he discovered the cellular and molecular mechanisms of memory storage. How these synapses get big to store memories. Um he demonstrated learning plasticity meaning the the the changing nature of synapses
41:48by working with allesia Californiaica which is basically the sea slug. Again model organisms are super important. He chose this model organism because the synapses are massive. You can just see them with a light microscope. And in fact some of them you can see with the naked eye like the the the synapses themselves are massive. So, you know, it it leads to readily probe for experimentation. You know what I mean? >> Um, he won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.