On December 7^th, The Brain and Intelligence Research Center and the School of Physical Science and Technology in Guangxi University, in collaboration with SIBET(Suzhou Institute of Biological Engineering and Technology) of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology in Germany, published their research progress on the formation process of holistic bursting cells and the certain conditions of the auditory engram in Nature Communications under the title “Holistic Bursting Cells Store Long-term Memory in Auditory Cortex”. Guangxi University is the first affiliation.

Based on two-photon imaging and targeted single-cell ERG recording, the paper explored the formation process of “Holistic Bursting (HB)” cells in the auditory cortex. It also reveals that HB cells fulfil the four certain conditions that German psychologist Richard Wolfgang Semon proposed more than a century ago as the original scientific definition of the “Engram” (see chart). This study reveals that HB cells may be long-term memory engram cells in the auditory cortex, and it also demonstrates that chronic two-photon imaging with targeted single-cell electrophysiological recording is a key method for revealing long-term memory engram cells in the cortex.