The brain has a remarkable but underappreciated capacity to limit memory formation and expression. The term “memory suppressor gene” was coined in 1998 as an attempt to explain emerging reports that some genes appeared to limit memory. At that time, only a handful of memory suppressor genes were known, and they were understood to work by limiting cAMP-dependent consolidation. In the intervening decades, almost 100 memory suppressor genes with diverse functions have been discovered that affect not only consolidation but also acquisition and forgetting. Here we highlight the surprising extent to which biological limits are placed on memory formation through reviewing the literature on memory suppressor genes. In this review, we present memory suppressors within the framework of their actions on different memory operations: acquisition, consolidation, and forgetting. This is followed by a discussion of the reasons why there may be a biological need to limit memory formation.

大脑在限制记忆形成和表达方面具有非凡但未被充分认识的能力。“记忆抑制基因”一词是在 1998 年创造的，试图解释一些基因似乎限制记忆的新兴报道。那时，只有少数记忆抑制基因是已知的，它们被认为是通过限制 cAMP 依赖的整合来发挥作用的。在随后的几十年中，已经发现了近 100 个具有不同功能的记忆抑制基因，这些基因不仅影响巩固，还影响习得和遗忘。在这里，我们通过回顾有关记忆抑制基因的文献，强调了对记忆形成的生物学限制的惊人程度。在这篇综述中，我们在它们对不同记忆操作的作用框架内介绍了记忆抑制器：获取、整合、和遗忘。随后讨论了限制记忆形成的生物学需要的原因。