As human beings, our lives are intertwined with our thoughts, whether we’re contemplating dinner options or indulging in memories of our recent beach getaway.
Like humans, when rodents experience places and events, specific neural activity patterns are activated in the hippocampus, an area of the brain responsible for spatial memory. The new study finds rats can voluntarily generate these same activity patterns and do so to recall remote locations distant from their current position.
“To imagine is one of the remarkable things that humans can do. Now we have found that animals can do it too, and we found a way to study it,” says Albert Lee, formerly a Group Leader at Janelia and now an HHMI Investigator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.The project began nine years ago when Lai arrived at Janelia as a graduate student with an idea to test whether an animal could think.
The hippocampus stores mental maps of the world involved in recalling past events and imagining future scenarios. Memory recall involves the generation of specific hippocampal activity patterns related to places and events. But no one knew whether animals could voluntarily control this activity.
Technology Technology Latest News, Technology Technology Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: physorg_com - 🏆 388. / 55 Read more »
Source: SciTechDaily1 - 🏆 84. / 68 Read more »
Source: SciTechDaily1 - 🏆 84. / 68 Read more »
Source: SciTechDaily1 - 🏆 84. / 68 Read more »