how brain waves guide memory formation
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

How brain waves guide memory formation?

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today How brain waves guide memory formation?

Brain regions that are key to learning
Tehran - FNA

Two brain regions that are key to learning -- the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex -- use two different brain-wave frequencies to communicate as the brain learns to associate unrelated objects, researchers discovered.
Our brains generate a constant hum of activity: As neurons fire, they produce brain waves that oscillate at different frequencies. Long thought to be merely a byproduct of neuron activity, recent studies suggest that these waves may play a critical role in communication between different parts of the brain.
A new study from MIT neuroscientists adds to that evidence. The researchers found that two brain regions that are key to learning -- the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex -- use two different brain-wave frequencies to communicate as the brain learns to associate unrelated objects. Whenever the brain correctly links the objects, the waves oscillate at a higher frequency, called "beta," and when the guess is incorrect, the waves oscillate at a lower "theta" frequency.
"It's like you're playing a computer game and you get a ding when you get it right, and a buzz when you get it wrong. These two areas of the brain are playing two different 'notes' for correct guesses and wrong guesses," says Earl Miller, the Picower Professor of Neuroscience, a member of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and senior author of a paper describing the findings in the Feb. 23 online edition of Nature Neuroscience.
Furthermore, these oscillations may reinforce the correct guesses while repressing the incorrect guesses, helping the brain learn new information, the researchers say.
Signaling right and wrong
Miller and lead author Scott Brincat, a research scientist at the Picower Institute, examined activity in the brain as it forms a type of memory called explicit memory -- memory for facts and events. This includes linkages between items such as names and faces, or between a location and an event that took place there.
During the learning task, animals were shown pairs of images and gradually learned, through trial and error, which pairs went together. Each correct response was signaled with a reward.
As the researchers recorded brain waves in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex during this task, they noticed that the waves occurred at different frequencies depending on whether the correct or incorrect response was given. When the guess was correct, the waves occurred in the beta frequency, about 9 to 16 hertz (cycles per second). When incorrect, the waves oscillated in the theta frequency, about 2 to 6 hertz.
Previous studies by MIT's Mark Bear, also a member of the Picower Institute, have found that stimulating neurons in brain slices at beta frequencies strengthens the connections between the neurons, while stimulating the neurons at theta frequencies weakens the connections.
Miller believes the same thing is happening during this learning task.
"When the animal guesses correctly, the brain hums at the correct answer note, and that frequency reinforces the strengthening of connections," he says. "When the animal guesses incorrectly, the 'wrong' buzzer buzzes, and that frequency is what weakens connections, so it's basically telling the brain to forget about what it just did."
The findings represent a major step in revealing how memories are formed, says Howard Eichenbaum, director of the Center for Memory and Brain at Boston University.
"This study offers a very specific, detailed story about the role of different directions of flow, who's sending information to whom, at what frequencies, and how that feedback contributes to memory formation," says Eichenbaum, who was not part of the research team.
The study also highlights the significance of brain waves in cognitive function, which has only recently been discovered by Miller and others.
"Brain waves had been ignored for decades in neuroscience. It's been thought of as the humming of a car engine," Miller says. "What we're discovering through this experiment and others is that these brain waves may be the infrastructure that supports neural communication."
Enhancing memory
The researchers are now investigating whether they can speed up learning by delivering noninvasive electrical stimulation that oscillates at beta frequencies when the correct answer is given and at theta frequencies when the incorrect answer is given. "The idea is that you make the correct guesses feel more correct to the brain, and the incorrect guesses feel more incorrect," Miller says.
This form of very low voltage electrical stimulation has already been approved for use in humans.
"This is a technique that people have used in humans, so if it works, it could potentially have clinical relevance for enhancing memory or treating neurological disorders," Brincat says.

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

how brain waves guide memory formation how brain waves guide memory formation

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

how brain waves guide memory formation how brain waves guide memory formation

 



GMT 13:26 2017 Thursday ,30 March

More whistle-blowers are talking to WADA

GMT 12:24 2017 Friday ,18 August

Saad became stronger after crisis

GMT 21:56 2016 Friday ,29 April

Irrigation Minister meets with IFAD mission

GMT 13:07 2011 Wednesday ,11 May

Ruby denies affair with J.Mubarak

GMT 12:14 2017 Wednesday ,01 November

Monster planet found orbiting dwarf star

GMT 13:00 2016 Wednesday ,12 October

Wu urges foreign adventure for China's flops

GMT 16:42 2017 Sunday ,19 March

ISIS imprisons Mousl’s civilians in basements

GMT 11:35 2011 Monday ,11 July

Iran, Azerbaijan to honor poet Shahriar

GMT 14:34 2016 Tuesday ,09 August

Florence Foster Jenkins

GMT 10:36 2017 Thursday ,13 April

Coppola, Haneke, Haynes films in lineup for Cannes

GMT 05:43 2017 Tuesday ,15 August

Japan Decides to Relax Arms Export Ban

GMT 04:22 2017 Monday ,02 October

EU battle heats up over controversial weedkiller

GMT 01:54 2017 Friday ,24 November

Iraq launches final sweep to flush out IS

GMT 12:40 2017 Monday ,08 May

Predators advance to Western Conference final
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday