Scientists of the South-Western Medical Center of Texas University found about hundreds of neurons involved in the formation of episodic memory, in the hippocampus and the enthusal cortex of the human brain. The results published in the journal NeuroImage will help to develop new methods for the treatment of mental disorders and brain injuries.
In the study of the memory mechanism, 27 patients with epilepsy were involved, which implanted electrodes during surgical therapy with a difficult form of epilepsy. Volunteers performed tasks for memorization, which made it possible to determine the activity of the nerve cells involved. In total, 103 neurons were revealed, the frequency of the operation was associated with the successful formation of episodic memory – memory of personal experience, including the memory of the place and time of events.
How do the authors of work write, these neurons have important properties. For example, they demonstrate the same pattern of activity when a person remembers the information and when trying to extract this information from memory. This activity may be related to schizophrenia when, due to the hypocampal dysfunction, patients often cannot distinguish nonsense or hallucinations from real memories.
Results complement the important model of memory formation model called “Separate Phases AT Encoding and Retrieval, Spear” and built on the basis of experiments on rodents. This model explains how the brain can be distinguished to distinguish the old and new memory when removing information. Scientists have shown that the peak activity of neurons is tied to the phase of the Thaw-waves of the Hippocampus, but this phase has shifted between the memory encoding and the memory.