Depression impacts quality of life at all life stages, but little is known about the factors related to depression in the last year of life. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that 59.3% of individuals had depression in the last month before death. In the interview-based study that included 3,274 individuals who died by the end of the study, depression symptoms increased gradually from 12 to 4 months before death and then escalated from 4 to 1 months before death.

What information is retained in a memory over time, and which parts get lost? These questions have led to many scientific theories over the years, and now a team of researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Birmingham have been able to provide some answers. Their new study, which is published today in Nature Communications, demonstrates that our memories become less vibrant and detailed over time, with only the central gist eventually preserved. Moreover, this 'gistification' of our memories is boosted when we frequently recall our recent experiences.

Using a mouse model, researchers demonstrated the formation of fear memory involves the strengthening of neural pathways between two brain areas: the hippocampus, which responds to a particular context and encodes it, and the amygdala, which triggers defensive behavior, including fear responses. How does the brain form "fear memory" that links a traumatic event to a particular situation? A pair of researchers at the University of California, Riverside, may have found an answer.