Over the past decades, scientists doing research in the field of neuroscience have learned a lot. However, to a large extent our brain remains a mystery. This is because its complexity is extraordinary. However, this difficulty does not constitute an obstacle to continuing efforts and research. Fortunately. If neuroscientists abandon the matter, our knowledge of the human brain will stagnate.
Flavio Donato and his team of researchers at the University of Basel (Switzerland) are not intimidated by the natural complexity of our brain. And their efforts are already bearing fruit. In the article published by these scientists in the journal sciences They explain in great detail a brain mechanism that neuroscientists do not yet fully understand. Oddly enough, this behavior is very reminiscent of the strategy humans use to prevent our computers from losing our most valuable information.
Our brain makes sure to keep our memories safe.
The human brain has an incredible capacity for learning and flexibility. Storing memories is one of the mechanisms that helps us learn, taking the experiences we have had in the past as a starting point. This learning is crucial because it allows us to adapt and respond to some of the challenges and experiences we will have to face in the future. Until now, neuroscientists have not known how the human brain resolves the dynamics of memories, but we already have some answers. And they are very interesting.
All this activity takes place in the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for learning from experience.
Professor Donato and his team discovered that our brain processes each memory associated with a particular experience in order to store it in multiple copies at the same time. This simply means that memory Leaves no mark In the structure of our brain, it is therefore not unreasonable to compare this mechanism to the creation of backups that we use to protect the most relevant information that we store on our computers.
Furthermore, these scientists concluded that copies of a particular memory are retained for different lengths of time, so not all of them persist indefinitely. In fact, in some cases, none of them may persist. However, that’s not all they discovered. They also confirmed that some copies may be modified to some extent over time. What’s strange is that all of this activity occurs in the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for learning from experience.
Curiously, each experience is stored in at least three different sets of neurons that form during different stages of embryonic development. In fact, the neurons that form first are responsible for storing memories that It is maintained in the long term.Later-forming neurons have a very strong memory retention capacity at first, but they fade over time. Finally, memories that are stored for a short period in neurons formed in the later stages of embryonic development can be easily modified and rewritten.
“The challenge our brain faces when it comes to memory is impressive. On the one hand, it must remember what we have experienced in the past to help us understand the world we live in. But it also needs to adapt to the changes happening around us to help us make the right decisions to ensure our survival.” Professor Donato explains to usIt’s exciting. There’s no doubt that in the field of neuroscience, scientists still have a lot of work to do, but thanks to discoveries by researchers like these, we can look to the future with very healthy optimism.
Image | Anna Shvets
More information | sciences
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