Knowtex

Newness is key to forming memories. It's a matter of survival.

L'?équipe de recherche République des Lettres accueillera David Freedberg, professeur à l'Université de Columbia, New York. Il donnera une série de conférences au Collège de France sur le sujet suivant : "Art History and Neuroscience: the Challenge for the Humanities".

Many areas of the brain function by having lots of neurons recognize and communicate simple features. A new study suggests one way this simple, sparse coding is enforced.

Comment nos souvenirs sont-ils conservés? Selon une étude récente, dès l’encodage d’un souvenir, les neurones du cortex doivent passer par un processus d’étiquetage précoce pour permettre, dans les semaines qui suivent, l’intégration progressive et la stabilisation durable de ce souvenir.

A study of the salamander brain has led researchers to discover a hitherto unknown function of the neurotransmitter dopamine showing that dopamine controls the formation of new neurons in the adult brain.Their findings may contribute to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

Drug abuse is probably linked to an in-built tendency to act without thinking, as shown by studies of siblings of chronic stimulant users, a leading neuroscientist will claim this week.

Devices which could be used to rehabilitate the arms and hands of people who have experienced a stroke have been developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.

The moment we open our eyes, we perceive the world with apparent ease. But how neurons in the retina encode what we “see” has been a tricky a tricky one. A key obstacle to understanding how our brain functions is that its components respond in highly nonlinear ways to complex stimuli.

When we suddenly get the answer to a riddle or understand the solution to a problem, we can practically feel the light bulb click on in our head. But what happens after the “Aha!” moment? Why do the things we learn through sudden insight tend to stick in our memory?