OSCR

Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila.

Overview

Authors: Wenbin Yang1,2, Benedetta Zattera1,2, Miguel Pavão-Delgado1,2, Carolin Warnecke1,2, Johanna Aurelia Schweizer1,2, Ana Ricciuti1,2, Büşra Çoban1, Johannes Felsenberg1
ORCID iDs: Wenbin Yang, Carolin Warnecke, Johannes Felsenberg
  1. Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research,Basel, Switzerland
  2. Faculty of Science, University of Basel,Basel, Switzerland
Institutions: Friedrich Miescher Institute (Switzerland); University of Basel (Switzerland)
Journal: Nature neuroscience, volume 29, issue 9, pages 2204-2213
Dates: received 10 March 2025; accepted 18 June 2026; published online 30 July 2026; in print 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1038/s41593-026-02381-2 · PMID 42533131 · PMCID PMC13533848 · OpenAlex W7171819545
Open access: hybrid, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: dead link
Categories: drosophila (organism)
Methods: Statistics, fMRI & imaging, Single-unit activity, calcium imaging
Keywords: Forgetting, Neural circuits
MeSH: Memory*, Animals, Animals, Genetically Modified, Avoidance Learning, Cues, Drosophila, Drosophila Proteins, Mushroom Bodies, Neurons (* major topic)
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms (Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Funding: EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 European Research Council (H2020 Excellent Science - European Research Council) (950480)
Citations: cited by 1 paper (Europe PMC); 76 references in the paper

Abstract

Recovering forgotten memories is a double-edged sword. While regaining access to forgotten information can be advantageous, targeted memory recovery carries the risk of generating false memories. The neuronal processes governing true memory recovery and false memory formation remain poorly understood. Here we show in Drosophila that reminder cues recover forgotten aversive memories. Forgotten memories persist as silent memory traces in behaviorally neutral mushroom body output neurons. From this silent state, reminders recover memory expression by reinstating the original memory trace in mushroom body output neurons that guide behavior. However, manipulating reminders can distort recovery, leading to false memory formation. The effectiveness of this distortion depends on whether misleading reminder cues were present during the original training event. Both true memory recovery and false memory formation are context-dependent processes gated by separable dopaminergic pathways. Together, these findings suggest that forgotten memories can re-emerge through a reconstructive process that flexibly integrates stored information and recent experiences.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

No file of the authors' code could be read here: it is described below, and read at its source.

Zenodo 20055473

License: none: the authors keep all their rights
State: the link is dead, verified on 27 September 2026
Evidence: found in the paper
Software Heritage: not checked
Found in: “Code availability”
Not found: README, license file, CITATION.cff, environment file, tests, continuous integration, documentation
Availability: 1 check, the latest on 27 September 2026: the link is dead (HTTP 404)
  • 27 September 2026: the link is dead (HTTP 404)
At the source:

Code availability

The complete analysis code is publicly available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20055473 (ref. 76).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Tracing map

Proposed by the machine: these links were found in the paper and verified at the source, without human review. The map will receive a Zenodo DOI once one of the paper's authors has validated it with their ORCID.

What the map holds:

  • 1 repository of the authors' code, each at its verified commit, with its license and how the link was found in the paper;
  • 0 scripts, each with its path and the digest of its content;
  • no match between paragraphs and code yet;
  • neither the text of the paper nor the code itself.

Its JSON (tracing-map.json) is deposited on Zenodo with its DOI once the map is validated.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability

The experimental data that support the findings of this study are available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20055473 (ref. 76). Source data are provided with this paper.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 2, 28 September 2026

  • Publisher: n/a → Nature Portfolio

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 8 authors, 2 keywords, 9 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 76 references.

Cite

This paper

Yang, W., Zattera, B., Pavão-Delgado, M., Warnecke, C., Schweizer, J. A., Ricciuti, A., Çoban, B., & Felsenberg, J. (2026). Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila. Nature neuroscience, 29(9), 2204-2213. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02381-2

BibTeX

@article{yang2026creating,
author = {Yang, Wenbin and Zattera, Benedetta and Pavão-Delgado, Miguel and Warnecke, Carolin and Schweizer, Johanna Aurelia and Ricciuti, Ana and Çoban, Büşra and Felsenberg, Johannes},
title = {{Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila}},
journal = {Nature neuroscience},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
volume = {29},
number = {9},
pages = {2204--2213},
publisher = {Nature Portfolio},
issn = {1097-6256},
doi = {10.1038/s41593-026-02381-2},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02381-2},
pmid = {42533131},
pmcid = {PMC13533848}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Yang, Wenbin
AU - Zattera, Benedetta
AU - Pavão-Delgado, Miguel
AU - Warnecke, Carolin
AU - Schweizer, Johanna Aurelia
AU - Ricciuti, Ana
AU - Çoban, Büşra
AU - Felsenberg, Johannes
TI - Creating true and false memories from forgotten information in Drosophila
T2 - Nature neuroscience
J2 - Nat Neurosci
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/30
VL - 29
IS - 9
SP - 2204
EP - 2213
SN - 1097-6256
PB - Nature Portfolio
DO - 10.1038/s41593-026-02381-2
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02381-2
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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