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PITTSBURGH, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A Pittsburgh scientist says researchers have detected a memory trace in an animal after it has encountered a single, new stimulus.
The research, done with honeybees sensing new odors, allows neuroscientists to peer within the living brain and explore short-term memory as never before, according to Roberto Fernandez Galan, a postdoctoral research associate at Carnegie Mellon University.
"Our findings show an odor produces a memory trace of synchronized neural activity that lasts several minutes after a bee initially senses it," said Galan. "This is the first time anyone has revealed a short-term, stimulus-specific neural pulse within the living brain that occurs after exposure to a previously unknown stimulus."
The report supports Hebb's theory of learning, a 55-year-old proposition that "neurons that fire together wire together." According to the theory, a stimulus activates some neurons while inhibiting others. Once the stimulus is removed, traces of the excitation/inhibition pattern should remain.
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A Pittsburgh scientist says researchers have detected a memory trace in an animal after it has encountered a single, new stimulus.
The research, done with honeybees sensing new odors, allows neuroscientists to peer within the living brain and explore short-term memory as never before, according to Roberto Fernandez Galan, a postdoctoral research associate at Carnegie Mellon University.
"Our findings show an odor produces a memory trace of synchronized neural activity that lasts several minutes after a bee initially senses it," said Galan. "This is the first time anyone has revealed a short-term, stimulus-specific neural pulse within the living brain that occurs after exposure to a previously unknown stimulus."
The report supports Hebb's theory of learning, a 55-year-old proposition that "neurons that fire together wire together." According to the theory, a stimulus activates some neurons while inhibiting others. Once the stimulus is removed, traces of the excitation/inhibition pattern should remain.
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Re: living memory trace found?
Tue, December 6, 2005 - 7:41 PMAlso, you might want check out the video and most of the writen work by Eric Kandel on the matter. He elaborates about the cellular underpinnings of memory on Aplysia and mice.
www.hhmi.org/research/in...kandel.html.
