Summary: Researchers have discovered a number of brain cells, called idea neurons and location cells, that can determine how well we will consider people and places.
When memory is formed, these cells in the medial temporal lobes and the parahippocampal brain activate and respond to particular images and areas. Their activity is related to effective memory retention, with higher blasting prices when memories are properly recalled later.
This finding expands our understanding of how personal recollections are encoded and consolidated.
Important Information:
- Based on their activity, strategy and site cells predict memory victory.
- These cells are found in the parahippocampal brain and lateral temporal lobe.
- Better storage recall is correlated to higher firing levels in these cells.
Origin: University of Bonn
When confronted with various images, the name of a certain person, or the personality of an object, some brain nerve cells become effective. They avoid reacting to different people or objects because they are very careful.
These so-called principle neurons, which are vital for memory formation, have so far only been discovered in humans and only in the medial temporal lobe.
A global research team led by Prof. Florian Mormann from the UKB, who is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area ( TRA )” Life &, Health” at the University of Bonn, has already demonstrated their significant role for working memory in a , a study from 2017, in which individual concept neurons representing particular people or objects keep memory content available for a brief period of time.
They continue to function until another nerve is stimulated and a new image is displayed.
The research team was able to use the strategy neurons ‘ stimulation during the working storage phase to determine whether the check subjects would eventually be able to recall the image that had already been shown.
However, how a successful integration of the experiences into the sequential memory, which contains information about place and time, was recently unknowable.
Sina Mackay, a graduate student at the University of Bonn in Prof. Mormann’s research team at the UKB, asserts that” we have therefore pursued the assumption that these strategy neurons serve as the building blocks that are used to create memories of experiences.
Cerebral exercise provides “what” and “where” in memory development
The UKB, one of the largest seizures centers in Europe, makes use of a unique feature of the Clinic for Epileptology for its medical work: around, patients with severe forms of epilepsy can receive medical and other treatments. In some cases, sensors are placed first in the mind to orient the seizure’s origin.
In addition to performing tasks, the research team has the ability to monitor the electrical activity of individual cells while epilepsy patients perform tasks. In this case, the task was an associated memory model, where people or objects were placed in a particular location on the display.
In the meantime, the researchers from Bonn measured the site cells in the medial temporal lobes and the parahippocampal brain, which house location cells.
This time, they concentrated on the actions of site cells, which react to specific positions on the screen when images were displayed, regardless of which images were displayed at that place, as well as the conduct of principle neurons.
Although Prof. Mormann’s research team now discovered a projection influence, the Bonn researchers have now been able to demonstrate that the correct memorization of concept-location pairs is based on the activity of place neurons in the medial temporal lobe and concept neurons in the medial temporal lobe.
” In both the object-selective and location-selective nerve groups, the fire levels were considerably higher if they were afterwards remembered correctly”, says Mackay.
In comparison, the remaining neurons, which make up more than 90 percent in these regions, did not predict effective memory creation, underscoring the very specific part of concept and location neurons.
According to Prof. Mormann,” we assume that the parahippocampal place cells, which are involved in our daily experiences, are reactivated during the consolidation of memory, such as during deep sleep,” and that additional studies are required to support this theory.
This research project was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and the German Research Foundation ( DFG ) as part of the Collaborative Research Center ( SFB) 1089.
About this news about neuroscience research and memory
Author: Inka Väth
Source: University of Bonn
Contact: Inka Väth – University of Bonn
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
By Florian Mormann and colleagues,” Concept and location neurons in the human brain provide the “what” and “where” in memory formation. Nature Communications
Abstract
Concept and location neurons in the human brain serve as the “what” and “where” in memory formation.
Our brains create new memories by capturing the ‘ who/what’,’ where’ and’ when’ of everyday experiences. Mechanisms on the neuronal level that facilitate a successful transfer into episodic memory are still undetermined.
We investigated this by examining the single neuron activity that occurs during item-location association encoding in the human medial temporal lobe.
Although previous studies have demonstrated predictive effects on population activity in human MTL structures, we can attribute these effects to two distinct sub-groups of neurons: concept cells in the hippocampus, amygdala and entorhinal cortex (EC ), and a second subset of parahippocampal location-selective neurons. In both item- and location-selective populations, firing rates were significantly higher during successfully encoded trials.
Since selective index neurons may serve as pointers to neocortical representations, these findings align with theories of hippocampal indexing.
Overall, the activation of distinct populations of neurons could directly support the relationship between episodic memory’s “what” and “where” behaviors.
