The research, carried out on mice, shows that brain cells can keep information stored for as long as one minute. The study was published in Nature Neuroscience. Researchers say that this finding may provide clues to treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
Scientists originally thought that memories required brain circuits, comprising many cells for memory to be retained.
More recent ideas have centred around the concept that even an individual cell could somehow hold on to information.
Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern looked at brain cells taken from mice using tiny electrodes to measure their function.
They found that a particular component of the cells in question, a chemical receptor, which, when switched on, tells the cell to start an internal signal system that holds the "memory" in place.
The next step will be to find out about this internal system in order to develop drugs that can target it, with the aim of improving memory.
