Visual recognition memory: a view from V1

•Habituation is a well-established and robust assay to study visual recognition memory.•Synapses in V1 are modified as mice habituate to familiar stimuli.•Local manipulations of synaptic plasticity in V1 disrupt encoding and retrieval of memory.

Although work in primates on higher-order visual areas has revealed how the individual and concerted activity of neurons correlates with behavioral reports of object recognition, very little is known about the underlying mechanisms for visual recognition memory. Low-level vision, even as early as primary visual cortex (V1) and even in subjects as unsophisticated as rodents, promises to fill this void. Although this latter approach sacrifices interrogation of many of the most astounding features of visual recognition, it does provide experimental constraint, proximity to sensory input, and a wide range of interventional approaches. The tractability of rodent visual cortex promises to reveal the molecular mechanisms and circuits that are essential for a fundamental form of memory.

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