Nominations

Papers nominated for our Memory Research Awards

The community nominates papers that mark milestones toward decoding a non-trivial memory from synaptic connectivity. Browse them all, or filter by topic.

Nominate

What makes a good nomination?

Our mission is guided by the Memory Decoding Challenge — the aspiration to decode a non-trivial memory from a static map of synaptic connectivity. Our annual Memory Research Awards honor papers that achieve key milestones toward that challenge. Strong nominations include:

Papers that demonstrate the decoding of simple functions (e.g. single-neuron visual receptive fields, simple binary behaviors) from synaptic connectivity.

Papers that reveal how memories are coded by tagging and manipulating memories at the cellular and synaptic levels.

Basic research papers exploring the structural and molecular changes underlying synaptic plasticity.

Other high-quality papers that represent key milestones toward decoding memories.

Nominate a paper

Anyone in the community may nominate a paper, including self-nominations. Browse all nominations below, filter by topic, and click any card for the key figure, a summary, and a link to the paper.

Distinct synaptic plasticity rules operate across dendritic compartments in vivo during learning

William J. Wright, Nathan G. Hedrick, Takaki Komiyama

Synaptic structure-function correlations View details

Behavioral time scale synaptic plasticity underlies CA1 place fields

Katie C. Bittner, Aaron D. Milstein, Christine Grienberger, et al.

Hippocampus View details

Synaptic architecture of a memory engram in the mouse hippocampus

Marco Uytiepo, Yongchuan Zhu, Eric Bushong, et al.

Hippocampus View details

★ 2025 Winner

Connectome-constrained networks predict neural activity across the fly visual system

Janne K. Lappalainen, Fabian D. Tschopp, Sridhama Prakhya, et al.

Dendritic integration & neuronal modeling View details

★ 2025 Winner

Systems consolidation reorganizes hippocampal engram circuitry

Sangyoon Y. Ko, Yiming Rong, Adam I. Ramsaran, et al.

Hippocampus View details

★ 2025 Winner

Functional connectomics reveals general wiring rule in mouse visual cortex

Zhuokun Ding, Paul G. Fahey, Stelios Papadopoulos, et al.

Visual receptive field learning View details

Structure and function of the hippocampal CA3 module

Rosanna P. Sammons, Mourat Vezir, Laura Moreno-Velasquez, et al.

Hippocampus View details

Light-microscopy-based connectomic reconstruction of mammalian brain tissue

Mojtaba R. Tavakoli, Julia Lyudchik, Michał Januszewski, et al.

View details

★ 2025 Winner

Binary and analog variation of synapses between cortical pyramidal neurons

Sven Dorkenwald, Nicholas L Turner, Thomas Macrina, et al.

Correlations among synapses with shared history View details

Barcoding of episodic memories in the hippocampus of a food-caching bird

Selmaan N. Chettih, Emily L. Mackevicius, Stephanie Hale, et al.

Hippocampus View details

Fear learning induces synaptic potentiation between engram neurons in the rat lateral amygdala

Marios Abatis, Rodrigo Perin, Ruifang Niu, et al.

Fear memory in amygdala View details

A Drosophila computational brain model reveals sensorimotor processing

Philip K. Shiu, Gabriella R. Sterne, Nico Spiller, et al.

View details

★ 2023 Co-Winner

Synaptic correlates of associative fear memory in the lateral amygdala

Dong Il Choi, Jooyoung Kim, Hoonwon Lee, et al.

Fear memory in amygdala View details

Visual physiology of the layer 4 cortical circuit in silico

Anton Arkhipov, Nathan W. Gouwens, Yazan N. Billeh, et al.

Dendritic integration & neuronal modeling View details

Active dendrites enable strong but sparse inputs to determine orientation selectivity

Lea Goetz, Arnd Roth, Michael Häusser

Dendritic integration & neuronal modeling View details

Contribution of apical and basal dendrites to orientation encoding in mouse V1 L2/3 pyramidal neurons

Jiyoung Park, Athanasia Papoutsi, Ryan T. Ash, et al.

Dendritic integration & neuronal modeling View details

★ 2019 Winner

Controlling Visually Guided Behavior by Holographic Recalling of Cortical Ensembles

Luis Carrillo-Reid, Shuting Han, Weijian Yang, et al.

Neuronal ensembles View details

Photoactivatable CaMKII induces synaptic plasticity in single synapses

Akihiro C. E. Shibata, Hiromi H. Ueda, Kei Eto, et al.

Molecular mechanisms of learning View details

Hippocampal LTP and contextual learning require surface diffusion of AMPA receptors

A. C. Penn, C. L. Zhang, F. Georges, et al.

Molecular mechanisms of learning View details

Local protein synthesis is a ubiquitous feature of neuronal pre-and postsynaptic compartments

Anne-Sophie Hafner, Paul G. Donlin-Asp, Beulah Leitch, et al.

Molecular mechanisms of learning View details

Dense connectomic reconstruction in layer 4 of the somatosensory cortex

Alessandro Motta, Manuel Berning, Kevin M. Boergens, et al.

Correlations among synapses with shared history View details

★ 2019 Winner

Nanoconnectomic upper bound on the variability of synaptic plasticity

Thomas M Bartol, Cailey Bromer, Justin Kinney, et al.

Correlations among synapses with shared history View details

Kinetics of Endogenous CaMKII Required for Synaptic Plasticity Revealed by Optogenetic Kinase Inhibitor

Hideji Murakoshi, Myung Eun Shin, Paula Parra-Bueno, et al.

Labeling & photo-erasure of synaptic ensemble View details

★ 2023 Winner

Stepwise synaptic plasticity events drive the early phase of memory consolidation

Akihiro Goto, Ayaka Bota, Ken Miya, et al.

Labeling & photo-erasure of synaptic ensemble View details

Optical inactivation of synaptic AMPA receptors erases fear memory

Kiwamu Takemoto, Hiroko Iwanari, Hirobumi Tada, et al.

Labeling & photo-erasure of synaptic ensemble View details

Labelling and optical erasure of synaptic memory traces in the motor cortex

Akiko Hayashi-Takagi, Sho Yagishita, Mayumi Nakamura, et al.

Labeling & photo-erasure of synaptic ensemble View details

Optogenetic reactivation of memory ensembles in the retrosplenial cortex induces systems consolidation

André F. de Sousa, Kiriana K. Cowansage, Ipshita Zutshi, et al.

Memory consolidation View details

★ 2023 Co-Winner

Selective corticostriatal plasticity during acquisition of an auditory discrimination task

Qiaojie Xiong, Petr Znamenskiy, Anthony M. Zador

Learning in the striatum View details

Engram cells retain memory under retrograde amnesia

Tomás J. Ryan, Dheeraj S. Roy, Michele Pignatelli, et al.

Hippocampus View details

Explicit memory creation during sleep demonstrates a causal role of place cells in navigation

Gaetan de Lavilléon, Marie Masako Lacroix, Laure Rondi-Reig, et al.

Hippocampus View details

★ 2023 Co-Winner

Interregional synaptic maps among engram cells underlie memory formation

Jun-Hyeok Choi, Su-Eon Sim, Ji-il Kim, et al.

Hippocampus View details

The functional organization of excitatory synaptic input to place cells

Michael D. Adoff, Jason R. Climer, Heydar Davoudi, et al.

Hippocampus View details

★ 2019 Winner

Memory formation in the absence of experience

Gisella Vetere, Lina M. Tran, Sara Moberg, et al.

Fear memory in amygdala View details

Engineering a memory with LTD and LTP

Sadegh Nabavi, Rocky Fox, Christophe D. Proulx, et al.

Fear memory in amygdala View details

Encoding of discriminative fear memory by input-specific LTP in the amygdala

Woong Bin Kim, Jun-Hyeong Cho

Fear memory in amygdala View details

Synapse-specific representation of the identity of overlapping memory engrams

Kareem Abdou, Mohammad Shehata, Kiriko Choko, et al.

Fear memory in amygdala View details

★ 2019 Winner

Locally coordinated synaptic plasticity of visual cortex neurons in vivo

Sami El-Boustani, Jacque P. K. Ip, Vincent Breton-Provencher, et al.

Visual receptive field learning View details

Spatiotemporal functional organization of excitatory synaptic inputs onto macaque V1 neurons

Niansheng Ju, Yang Li, Fang Liu, et al.

Visual receptive field learning View details

Synaptic organization of visual space in primary visual cortex

M. Florencia Iacaruso, Ioana T. Gasler, Sonja B. Hofer

Visual receptive field learning View details

Orientation selectivity and the functional clustering of synaptic inputs in primary visual cortex

Daniel E Wilson, David E Whitney, Benjamin Scholl, et al.

Visual receptive field learning View details

Cortical response selectivity derives from strength in numbers of synapses

Benjamin Scholl, Connon I. Thomas, Melissa A. Ryan, et al.

Visual receptive field learning View details

Spatial connectivity matches direction selectivity in visual cortex

L. Federico Rossi, Kenneth D. Harris, Matteo Carandini

Visual receptive field learning View details

Ultrastructural comparison of dendritic spine morphology preserved with cryo and chemical fixation

Hiromi Tamada, Jerome Blanc, Natalya Korogod, et al.

Synaptic structure-function correlations View details

In vivo two-photon uncaging of glutamate revealing the structure–function relationships of dendritic spines in the neocortex of adult mice

Jun Noguchi, Akira Nagaoka, Satoshi Watanabe, et al.

Synaptic structure-function correlations View details

Whole-Neuron Synaptic Mapping Reveals Spatially Precise Excitatory/Inhibitory Balance Limiting Dendritic and Somatic Spiking

Daniel Maxim Iascone, Yujie Li, Uygar Sümbül, et al.

Synaptic structure-function correlations View details

★ 2023 Winner

Structure and function of a neocortical synapse

Simone Holler, German Köstinger, Kevan A. C. Martin, et al.

Synaptic structure-function correlations View details

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Nominations are open to everyone, including self-nominations. Suggest a paper that marks a milestone toward decoding memory from connectivity.

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