In a University of Illinois lab in the 1980s, Steve Maren heard neurons fire for the first time. His research trajectory snapped into place like an amygdala-shaped arrow.

In August 2024, Maren became director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. In this Q&A, he reflects on his journey from Illinois student to interdisciplinary research leader, explores the mechanics of studying memory and leans into scientific uncertainty.

Your research is about emotional memories in the most technical sense. In the least technical sense, what is your strongest research-related emotional memory?

What comes to mind is the first time I heard the sound of neurons firing, this “Pop!” “Pop!” “Pop!” that I can still remember to this day. I realized that as we do things and move through the world, our brains are actively working in real time. In many experiments, especially preclinical ones, you enact some kind of stimulus and test measurements later to see the impact. But here, I could see and hear it happening in real time. It was like watching and listening to a movie.

What question is your research trying to answer?

The teaser-trailer version is: What if traumatic memories could be erased? In a more longform way, we hope to uncover the complexities of memory: how our brains make memories, access them and store them at the molecular, biological level. Right now, much of how the brain stores memories is still unknown. Learning more about memories — especially emotional memories, the ones that really stick with you — will ultimately help us manage our memories and their effects.

What makes a memory emotional?

Emotional memories are what they sound like. They’re usually associated with a physiological reaction. It could be something good, like winning the lottery or getting a job offer, or something negative, like war or a memory of trauma. It’s not so much memorizing neutral details, like someone’s phone number — unless, of course, that phone number signifies that heart-skip moment of a relationship step, in which case it could be a positive emotional memory. Somewhat counterintuitively, positive emotional memories also include drug addictions, where the association is with gratification from a substance.

Why is studying emotional memories important?

This question has many answers. If we learn how the brain creates fear memories, maybe we can learn how to dampen those fear memories and decrease the effects of anxiety, stress and trauma disorders like PTSD that impact almost one-third of the [world's] population. If we learn how the brain creates positive memories, we can potentially combat withdrawal from addiction. On a larger scale, understanding memory is key to understanding and preventing issues like Alzheimer’s disease.

How do you study this? What do your experiments typically look like?

We are trying to figure out where memories are stored. Our work is preclinical, which means it typically occurs in animal models. We expose the subjects to a noise that’s associated with fear-arousing event. When they hear the noise and recall that experience, we use imaging tools to see which parts of the brain are lighting up in response; specifically, we’re looking at the thalamus and amygdala. There are so many neurons firing and connecting, and we can trace that activity to find out exactly how it all works. Ultimately, we hope to start manipulating the parts of the brain to modify that response to either eliminate the negative associations of a memory or remove it altogether.

What sparked your interest in your field? Has your focus sharpened or shifted since?

I vividly remember how this started. I was here, at Illinois and Beckman in the late '80s, and I took an introductory psychology course, “Psych 210: Brain and the mind.” It was my introduction to neuroscience and how we store memories. Specifically, I was introduced to the amygdala, and my research trajectory was very linear from there. I basically plopped down in this specific part of the brain that I continue to study today, and to this day, my research still builds on everything that came before it.

What do you hope to accomplish with your research? What’s the best-case scenario?

This is a complicated question. If there was a pill to reverse memory loss and make us remember everything, would that force people to relive their worst moments? I think what we’re doing here is all about the nuance.

I do not see one finish line for my work. This is one of the joys of science for me, that there is no definitive end point. Even in the field I’m in, there are so many unexplored paths and new areas to focus on — it’s like academic Whack-a-Mole. There is always a next step, a new question, something undiscovered to tackle. It’s that relentless pursuit of new questions and new knowledge and that forward-looking optimism that drives me forward.

Speaking of next steps, how will your research trajectory continue in new ways at Beckman? Where would you like to see it go?

First, I want to acknowledge that science is a team sport. Kudos to the students and postdocs who make it possible. It’s not just one person, not just me sitting alone with my thoughts. It truly takes a village. Being part of Beckman’s interdisciplinary village will allow us to tackle this topic from new angles.

Three areas I can see right now are chemistry, psychology and bioengineering. Speaking to bioengineering, we have been interested in developing methods to suppress fear memories in real time before they can cause symptoms like flashbacks or nightmares. We are hoping to partner with bioengineers at Beckman to develop a neurocompatible device that will allow us to record and manipulate neural activity in emotion centers like the amygdala that contribute to pathological fear memory. These devices would detect the brain activity that precedes and anticipates the recall of fear memory, then shut it down before a full fear response happens.

Has studying the mind caused you to consider your own life differently?

Studying how the brain orchestrates behavior has given me new insight into my mind, and particularly a sense of wonderment about the memories that define who we are. Memory naturally declines with age and can be severely undermined by brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Although my focus has been on mental health, I may one day pivot to studying aging and age-related cognitive decline, which is perhaps the most pressing societal problem we all face as we get older.

Editor's notes:

Learn more about Maren’s research at https://marenlab.org/

Reach Steve Maren at smaren@illinois.edu

Media contact: Jenna Kurtzweil, kurtzwe2@illinois.edu