Rewriting the Rules: Scientists Solve an Episodic Memory Mystery
The brain has to do more than store what happened. It also needs to keep track of the circumstances in which an event took place. Scientists in Bonn report that the human brain may handle this by using two distinct sets of neurons, one for content and another for context. Instead of blending both types of information within single cells, the two groups appear to coordinate their activity to build memories. The findings were published in the journal Nature. People can recognize the same person or object across very different settings, such as a casual dinner with a friend versus a formal meeting with the same friend. “We already know that deep in the memory centers of the brain, specific cells, called concept neurons, respond to this friend, regardless of the environment in which he appears,” says Prof. Florian Mormann from the Clinic for Epileptology at the UKB, who is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) “Life & Health” at the University of Bonn. For a memor...
