A GLIMPOSE IN TO THE 3- D BRAIN: HOW MEMORIES FORM
People who wish to
know how memory works are forced to take a glimpse into the brain. They can now
do so without bloodshed: RUB researchers have developed a new method for
creating 3D models of memory-relevant brain structures. They published their
results in the journalFrontiers
in Neuroanatomy.
The way neurons are
interconnected in the brain is very complicated. This holds especially true for
the cells of the hippocampus. It is one of the oldest brain regions and its
form resembles a see horse (hippocampus in Latin). The hippocampus enables us
to navigate space securely and to form personal memories. So far, the anatomic
knowledge of the networks inside the hippocampus and its connection to the rest
of the brain has left scientists guessing which information arrived where and
when.
Signals spread through
the brain
Accordingly, Dr Martin
Pyka and his colleagues from the Mercator Research Group have developed a
method which facilitates the reconstruction of the brain's anatomic data as a
3D model on the computer. This approach is quite unique, because it enables
automatic calculation of the neural interconnection on the basis of their
position inside the space and their projection directions. Biologically
feasible network structures can thus be generated more easily than it used to
be the case with the method available to date.
Deploying 3D models,
the researchers use this technique to monitor the way neural signals spread
throughout the network time-wise. They have, for example, found evidence that
the hippocampus' form and size could explain why neurons in those networks fire
in certain frequencies.
Information become
memories
In future, this method
may help us understand how animals, for example, combine various information to
form memories within the hippocampus, in order to memorise food sources or
dangers and to remember them in certain situations.
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