Memory in the Brain [Interactive]

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Max Planck Neuroscience on Nautilus Mystery of the Human Brain's Glia Cells Solved --Key to Learning & Information Processing "Glia cells are like the brain's supervisors. By regulating the synapses, they control the transfer of information between neurons, affecting how the brain processes information and learns." Maurizio De Pittà of Tel Aviv University's Schools of Physics and Astronomy and Electrical Engineering Scientists have long puzzled over the role of Glia cells in the activities of the brain dedicated to learning and memory. Image at top of page shows a network of neurons (in red) and glia cells (in green) grown in a petri dish. The Daily Galaxy via Tel Aviv University Image credit: Pablo Blinder/American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU)

Do we live in a computer simulation? | Mo Costandi In today’s New York Times, John Tierney discusses an argument by Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, that our existence could be nothing more than a computer simulation being run by posthumanists. Dr. Bostrom assumes that technological advances could produce a computer with more processing power than all the brains in the world, and that advanced humans, or “posthumans,” could run “ancestor simulations” of their evolutionary history by creating virtual worlds inhabited by virtual people with fully developed virtual nervous systems. Some computer experts have projected, based on trends in processing power, that we will have such a computer by the middle of this century, but it doesn’t matter for Dr. The article includes links to four others related to Bostrom’s argument, and there’s a lengthy discussion going on at the TierneyLab blog. Like this: Like Loading...

Brain cost-efficiency linked to family genes Some brains are wired more efficiently than others, and new research has shown that 60% of the differences can be explained by genetic factors. Credit: iStockPhoto SYDNEY: How well our brain functions is largely based on our family’s genetic makeup, according to a new study which provides the first evidence of a genetic effect on how ‘cost-efficient’ our brain network wiring is. The study, led by Australian researchers, was published in The Journal of Neuroscience and could shed light on why some people are better able to perform certain tasks than others and the genetic basis of mental illnesses and neurological diseases. “Some brains are wired better than others, and 60% of the differences can be explained by genetic factors,” said lead author Alex Fornito from the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre at the University of Melbourne. More bang for your buck Cost efficiency involves a balance between two competing priorities. Strongest effects in prefrontal cortex

GABA Signaling Prunes Back Copious Provisional Synapses During Neural Circuit Assembly Quite early in its development, the mammalian brain has all the raw materials on hand to forge complex neural networks. But forming the connections that make these intricate networks so exquisitely functional is a process that occurs one synapse at a time. An important question for neuroscience has been: how exactly do stable synapses form? How do nerve cells of particular types know which of their cortical neighbors to “synapse” with, and which to leave out of their emerging networks? Neuroscientist Z. In emerging networks being established by GABA interneurons – inhibitory brain cells named for the neurotransmitting chemical, gamma aminobutyric acid, that they release – Huang’s team found strong evidence that the “default state” is for the cell to make tentative connections promiscuously, with almost every available partner. Huang explains that there are two known mechanisms at work in synapse formation. “GABA turns out to be a kind of discriminatory mechanism.

How Spatial Navigation Correlates with Language Cognitive neuroscientists from the Higher School of Economics and Aarhus University experimentally demonstrate how spatial navigation impacts language comprehension. The results of the study have been published in NeuroImage. Language is a complicated cognitive function, which is performed not only by local brain modules, but by a distributed network of cortical generators. Nikola Vukovic and Yury Shtyrov carried out an experiment at the HSE Centre for Cognition & Decision Making, which explains the relations between the systems responsible for spatial navigation and language. “When we read or hear stories about characters, we have to represent the inherently different perspectives people have on objects and events, and ‘put ourselves in their shoes’. Previous studies have shown that humans have certain spatial preferences that are based either on one’s body (egocentric) or are independent from it (allocentric). The participants of the experiment solved two types of tasks.

Researchers Map Brain Regions Linked to Intelligence FRIDAY, April 13 (HealthDay News) -- The physical architecture of intelligence in the brain has been mapped by scientists who used brain injury patients to conduct their research. The findings provide new insight about the specific brain structures involved in general intelligence and specific skills such as memory and the ability to understand words. The study included 182 Vietnam War veterans who had highly localized brain damage caused by penetrating head wounds. [Read: Health Buzz: Dental X-Rays Linked to Brain Tumors.] "It's a significant challenge to find patients [for research] who have brain damage, and even further, it's very hard to find patients who have focal brain damage," study leader Aron Barbey, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Illinois, said in a university news release. Many people who've suffered brain damage from stroke or other causes have multiple impaired brain areas. [Read: Study Suggests Vaccine May Help Kids With Brain Cancer.] More information

Mechanism found that prepares the a newborn's brain for information processing With their French colleagues, researchers at the University of Helsinki have found a mechanism in the memory center of newborn that adjusts the maturation of the brain for the information processing required later in life. The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience. The brain cells in the brain of a newborn are still quite loosely interconnected. In the middle of chaos, they are looking for contact with each other and are only later able to operate as interactive neural networks. Many cognitive operations, such as attention, memory, learning and certain states of sleep are based on rhythmic interactions of neural networks. Key players in this maturation process include a type of nerve cells called interneurons, and recent research sheds light on their functional development. The interneurons nerve cells are kind of controller cells.

8 Things Everybody Ought to Know About Concentrating “Music helps me concentrate,” Mike said to me glancing briefly over his shoulder. Mike was in his room writing a paper for his U.S. History class. On his desk next to his computer sat crunched Red Bulls, empty Gatorade bottles, some extra pocket change and scattered pieces of paper. Mike made a shift about every thirty seconds between all of the above. Do you know a person like this? The Science Behind Concentration In the above account, Mike’s obviously stuck in a routine that many of us may have found ourselves in, yet in the moment we feel it’s almost an impossible routine to get out of. When we constantly multitask to get things done, we’re not multitasking, we’re rapidly shifting our attention. Phase 1: Blood Rush Alert When Mike decides to start writing his History essay, blood rushes to his anterior prefrontal cortex. Phase 2: Find and Execute Phase 3: Disengagement While in this state, Mike then hears an email notification. The process repeats itself sequentially. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Human brain The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but has a more developed cortex than any other. Large animals such as whales and elephants have larger brains in absolute terms, but when measured using the encephalization quotient which compensates for body size, the human brain is almost twice as large as the brain of the bottlenose dolphin, and three times as large as the brain of a chimpanzee. Much of the expansion comes from the part of the brain called the cerebral cortex, especially the frontal lobes, which are associated with executive functions such as self-control, planning, reasoning, and abstract thought. The portion of the cerebral cortex devoted to vision is also greatly enlarged in humans. The human cerebral cortex is a thick layer of neural tissue that covers most of the brain. Scientifically, the techniques that are used to study the human brain differ in important ways from those that are used to study the brains of other mammals.

An unborn brain flowering connections We’ve mentioned some amazing advances in brain scanning unborn babies before on Mind Hacks and this image is another step in that remarkable science. The coloured fibres in the image are still-developing white matter circuits in the brain of an unborn baby at 36 weeks, picked out by a diffusion MRI scan. The scan is from a paper just published in Topics in Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Diffusion-tensor imaging or DTI can identify white matter connections, the brain’s ‘cabling’, by picking out which water molecules in the brain only move along restricted paths. It’s a bit like having a tube in a beehive. The same principal applies and DWI looks for the white matter ‘tubes’ by looking for where the brain’s water molecules can only move in certain directions. This relies on the brain being relatively still so these scans are difficult to do in unborn babies because of their tendency to move around in the womb. Link to locked study on Fetal Diffusion Imaging.