Scientists Unlock the Hidden Workings of Memory Using Neurofeedback in Rats – ryan

A new Study Published in Neuron Has Shown That Rats, Like Humans, Can intentionally Recall Specific Memories Without Being Promepted by External Cues or Needing to Act on Those Memories. Researchers Developed a neurofeedback System that trained rats to mentally “jump” to remembered locations in a maze, revealing that memory retrieval can be studied as an internal brain process from cues or behaviors. This breakthrough allows scientists to investigate how the Brain recalls information with reiling on Physical Movement or Senary Triggers.

Humans offten remember People, places, or events spontaneously and with noeding to anything in response. For instance, we might think about a past vacation or choose where to go for dinner on past experience. These Kinds of Memory Retrievals Happy with specific prompts or observable action.

In contrast, memory studies in animals typically relete on external cues and physical behavior to assess or memory han recalled. For Example, Rats May Be Tested on Whether they Can Find a Reward in a Maze or React to a Previously Learned Signal. The Challenge with the methods is that it was Becomes hard to separate the retrieval itelf from the sensory information, decision-making, or Behavior Involved.

“We all know that memories can be retrieved with directly causing an action, as wen we remout the past. Despite that, virtuely all studies in animals assess retrieval bassed on Whether an action is triggered,” Said study author Author Loren Franka professor at UC San Francisco and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

“Similarly, Most Studies of Memory USE specific cues to cause memory to be retrieved, but we know that tyometimes just bubble up with a clear cue. AS A result, we did not have to directly investigate separate from the cues or the cues. Drive I say.

The Research Team Focused on the Hippocampus, A Brain Region Known for Stooring Spatial Memory, and Particularly on “Place Cells” – Neurons that become acting an animal is in or thinks about a specific location. These Cells Not Only Represent Where the Animal Currently is but Can Also Reflect the Animal Has Been in the past.

The Researchers Developed a brain-machine interface is used real-time recordings from the rats’ hippocampal neurons. SIX rats were implanted with devices that it is could detect and interpret the activity of these places. During Training, the Rats Explored a Y-Shaped Maze With Rewards at the End of Two Arms. Their Brain Activity was recorded to create a map linking neural patterns to specific locations.

In a late phase, the lights on the mases weaps were tourned off and the rats removed near a central reward port. At this point, the system worth provides a reward only when the RAT’S BRAIN ACTIVITY INCLANTY IT MENTALLY REPREMENTING A REMOTA TARGET –one of the Maze weapons – Thought it was physically now near it.

Importantly, The Rats Could not see the target location from where they were. Nor were they gioven any cues to remind of it. Instead, they had to generate the representation of that place use only internal memory. When the System detected that their hippocampal Activity matched the pattern Associated with the target location, a tone played, and if the rat responded, IT Received a Reward. Over Multiple sessions, the rats learned to reliably Produce these remote memory representations, proving that they can have specified specification places in their minds.

In Most Cases, the Rats’ Brain Activity Skipped Directly from their Current Location to the Target, Rather than Moving Through Intermediate Points in Space. This is Similar to How People Can Mentally “Teleport” to a Memory Without Reliving Eve Moment in BetWeen. The Neural Activity was specific: it typically reflected only the goal location and not the path to it. Moreover, The Rats Could Switch BetWeen Different Target Locations when the Researchers Changed the Memory Required for the Reward, Showing that the Animals Had Flexible Over Over What they Remembered.

Frank and His Colleagues Also Found that they Memory Recall Events Involved Groups of Neurons Working Together. The Researchers Identified Distinct “Cell ASSEMBLIES” that Became active be a rat generated a remote memory. These Coordinated Patterns of Firing Mirrord the Activity Seen when the Rat Physically Visited the Location Earlier. It is when the rats were not moving or not recording a reward, these memory-linked assemblies were still active, suggesting a spontaneous and internal process of recall.

Interesting, Most of these Remote Memory Events Happened while the Rats Were Still But Not During A Well-Known State Called A Sharp Wave Ripple, which is offten to Memory Consolidation. Instead, They Occurred During Quieter Periods Without Strong External Brain Signals. This finding suggests that memory retrieval May Operate Through brain mechanisms that are different from those typically associated with storing or consolidating memory.

In some caesses, the recalled reproducts Occurred while the rats were moving, and in those instances, the Activity aligned with a specific rhythm in the brain the theme rhythm, whic haen tied to memory-guided planning and decision-mction.

“We were expensive to see that these events Occurred During a specific hippocampal Activity pattern Called a Sharp-wave ripple (SWR) Where we and oters Had hypothesized that memory retrieval took Place. “This was not the case, and our results suggest that even while reactivation of past experiencing durys, they are not the time the Times of the intensation retrieval in our Animals.”

By Training Animals to Retrieve Memory with External Prompts or Visible Cues, The Study Offers a Powerful New Approach to Studying How the Brain Accesses past Experiences. Unlike Prior Research Where Memory Could Only Be Studied Indirectly Through Behavior or Cue-Based Retrieval, This Method Allows Researchers to Observe Memory Recall As a Distinct and intentional brain process.

One of the most important implications of this work is that it CREATES A model for the understanding memory in ways that are closer to human cognition. It Shows that Animals Can Recall past Experiences Based on Internal Motivation, JUST SENSORY INPUT OR HABIT. This opens new doors for exploring how Memory works in the brain, how memories are used to make decisions, and what goes repayers in disorders is impressed.

“The main result is that ry rats, like people, can intentionally activate representations of places they have visited (eg, memory), whic means we can do it is the brain retrieves and how they are used to go. To Dinner Based on Past Experiences, ”Frank explained.

Howver, The Study Has Some Limits. The findings are based on a small number of rats and a specific type of Spatial Memory. It remeins to be seen whereer simillar patterns would for other types of memory or in different brain regions. Addictionally, while the researchers could retail that were recalling a location, it is impossible to fully know the subsidy experience of the Animal. Future Research Will Likely Explore How to Findings Relations to Other forms of Memory, Including Those That Involve Emotion, Time, OR Complex Associations.

By identifying the neural signatures of internalry Drivë Memory Recall, the researchers hope to eventually understand how the brain supports imagination, planning, and decision-making-allegedly relay on the ability to past experiences.

“Our long term goal is to know how the brain can generate and use memory,” Frank Told Psypost. “More broadly, we have been to getrstand how the brain can think, where internally generated patterns, typically based on past experience (eg, memory) are used to undertand the world and make decisions. retrieval, we are one step closer to that goal. ”

The Study, “Closed-Loop Modulation of Remote Hippocampal Representations with Neurofeedback”Was authored by Michael E. Coulter, Anna K. Gillespie, Joshua Chu, Eric L. Denovellis, Trevor Thai K. Nguyen, Daniel F. Liu, Katherine Wadhwani, Baibhav Sharma, Kevin Wang, Xinyi Deng, Uri T. Eden, Caleb Kemere, and Loren.