Baylor crowned STAT Madness champion for second consecutive year, for insights into memory

One of the biggest mysteries of the brain is how memories are formed. For over a century, scientists have hypothesized that neurons are the only cells involved in storing and recalling memories. Now, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine have discovered that another cell in the brain may play a crucial role in memory as well. Their study showing that star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes are also involved in forming and recalling memories won the 2025 STAT Madness popular vote. 

In 1904, a German zoologist and memory researcher named Richard Semon made a prediction about how memories were stored in the brain. Semon hypothesized that memories were kept in ensembles of neurons he called engrams, which became reactivated when memories were recalled.

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