Your Brain Cells Tick?
The work of a University of Leicester | able to respond to the name of the film | |
scientist, Dr Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, has | star and are fired through association. In | |
been cited as one of the top in the world | some individuals the ‘Aniston’ cell fired | |
for 2005. His groundbreaking | when an individual saw an image of Lisa | |
international research into how the brain | Kudrow - Aniston’s co-star on Friends - | |
responds to images was one of the top | because they associated these two people | |
100 international science stories of 2005 | with one another. Associations are | |
by Discover magazine and challenges the | different for each person. For one | |
beliefs of most neuroscientists. | individual a neuron might fire when they | |
We all know the images that fire our | see the Eiffel Tower and the Tower of | |
imagination, whether they are of film | Pisa, whereas another person might | |
stars, musicians, actors or a monument | associate the Eiffel Tower with the | |
or feature of landscape with special | Colosseum, depending on their | |
associations for us. | experiences and memories. | |
Scientists have long thought that | ||
recognition of such concepts was the | ||
result of huge numbers of neurons (nerve | ||
cells) reacting to very basic details - | ||
such as colour of hair, width between the | ||
eyes, height - fragments of information | ||
which all combine to recognise a complex | ||
pattern or concept. | ||
Research by a University of | ||
Leicester bioengineer, however, suggests | ||
that this is not the case and that a single | ||
neuron is able to respond to an entire | ||
concept. The visual representation of a | ||
person will be achieved in an abstract | ||
way by single neurons and not by a huge | ||
neural population, as science previously | ||
thought. To recognise a person, for | “Aniston” cell | |
example Friends star Jennifer Aniston, | ||
does not require a whole army of neurons | This study is important in | |
to each register minute pieces of detail | understanding how memory is created | |
like pixels on a television screen. Lots of | and how we gain our understanding of | |
neurons will fire but just one will | the world. | |
recognise the whole concept. | ||
_2_ , these ‘intelligent’ neurons are | Graduates Review, 2006 |