Credit: SciTechDaily.comObservations in mice hint at role of visions in redesigning the brain.During peaceful waking, brain activity in mice recommends the animals are fantasizing about a recent image.Having visions about a recently seen image forecasted how the brain would react to the image in the future.The findings provide an idea that fantasizes may play a function in brain plasticity.Understanding the Brain During DaydreamsYou are sitting quietly, and unexpectedly your brain tunes out the world and wanders to something else totally– possibly a current experience, or an old memory. The team concurrently recorded activity from around 7,000 neurons in the visual cortex.The researchers discovered that when a mouse looked at an image, the nerve cells fired in a specific pattern, and the patterns were various sufficient to recognize image one from image 2. More important, when a mouse looked at the gray screen in between images, the nerve cells in some cases fired in a comparable, however not identical, pattern, as when the mouse looked at the image, a sign that it was fantasizing about the image. These daydreams took place just when mice were relaxed, characterized by calm behavior and little pupils.Unsurprisingly, mice fantasized more about the most recent image– and they had more musings at the start of the day than at the end, when they had already seen each image dozens of times.But what the researchers discovered next was entirely unexpected.Between images, mice spent a minute looking at a gray screen. Our findings recommend that fantasizing may direct this procedure by guiding the neural patterns associated with the 2 images away from each other,” Nguyen stated, while keeping in mind that this relationship needs to be confirmed.Nguyen included that finding out to differentiate between the images must assist the mouse respond to each image with more specificity in the future.These observations line up with a growing body of evidence in rodents and humans that going into a state of peaceful wakefulness after an experience can enhance learning and memory.Next, the scientists prepare to utilize their imaging tools to imagine the connections in between private neurons in the visual cortex and to analyze how these connections alter when the brain “sees” an image.
More essential, when a mouse looked at the gray screen between images, the neurons in some cases fired in a comparable, however not similar, pattern, as when the mouse looked at the image, a sign that it was fantasizing about the image. These visions happened just when mice were unwinded, characterized by calm habits and small pupils.Unsurprisingly, mice daydreamed more about the most current image– and they had more daydreams at the beginning of the day than at the end, when they had already seen each image lots of times.But what the scientists found next was entirely unexpected.Between images, mice spent a minute looking at a gray screen. Our findings suggest that daydreaming may direct this process by steering the neural patterns associated with the 2 images away from each other,” Nguyen said, while noting that this relationship requires to be confirmed.Nguyen included that learning to distinguish in between the images must help the mouse respond to each image with more uniqueness in the future.These observations line up with a growing body of evidence in rodents and human beings that going into a state of peaceful wakefulness after an experience can improve learning and memory.Next, the scientists plan to utilize their imaging tools to picture the connections between individual neurons in the visual cortex and to analyze how these connections alter when the brain “sees” an image.