TiVo in the brain?
It's a whole new way of looking at the "rat race." Rats, while resting after performing a task like running a maze, run the entire experience backwards in their brains in a kind of instant replay. The process, researchers at MIT hypothesize, may help solidify memory and promote learning.
Does the same happen in humans? Likely. (Anyone want to volunteer to run back and forth in a maze with food at either end after having their brains wired up?) The findings may relate to the association of action and reward, and even add weight to the idea that rest after performing a task can facilitate the process of learning from experience.
In an interesting side note, they study may also help explain why hyperactive children can sometimes have learning problems - they don't get enough down time to process what they've learned.
[Read more at New Scientist]
Does the same happen in humans? Likely. (Anyone want to volunteer to run back and forth in a maze with food at either end after having their brains wired up?) The findings may relate to the association of action and reward, and even add weight to the idea that rest after performing a task can facilitate the process of learning from experience.
In an interesting side note, they study may also help explain why hyperactive children can sometimes have learning problems - they don't get enough down time to process what they've learned.
[Read more at New Scientist]
posted by Tom Ulrich at 10:30 PM
1 Comments:
I can see a evolutionary use for this mental imaging process. Typically rats run mazes for a reward, or in nature must navigate all types of geographic/predatorial obstacles when foraging for food. Remembering the exact way back to Point A would greatly help in finding "home-base" again. And allow you to return to the same spot with food the next time. I myself have a hard time remembering street names but could easily drive virtually anywhere I have ever been by retracing my "mental map."
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