Using mice, they discovered that the performance in processing unexpected stimuli increases over time and that the maturation of the brains action to surprises advances from the auditory systems periphery to the cerebral cortex, which matures much later on and requires sensory experience to establish fully.Children discover the world brimming with surprises, whereas grownups are considerably more difficult to astonish. A second website, the acoustic thalamus, just revealed an “adult” reaction to the differing tone at the age of 30 days.Development in the cerebral cortex itself, the “main auditory cortex”, took even longer, till day 50. If the mice were reared in a noise-neutral environment, the processing of unexpected noises in the auditory cortex was considerably delayed.One possible explanation for this is that the brain– and the cerebral cortex in particular– forms an internal image of the world during growth, which it then compares with external stimuli.
Using mice, they found that the efficiency in processing unanticipated stimuli increases over time and that the maturation of the brains response to surprises advances from the acoustic systems periphery to the cerebral cortex, which grows much later on and needs sensory experience to develop fully.Children discover the world teeming with surprises, whereas grownups are substantially harder to astonish. While this might appear unimportant at initially, so far there has been really little research into this truth in the context of brain development.Experiments with young mice conducted by Professor Tania Barkats research team have actually now started to decode how the developing brain processes unexpected noises and what changes as we grow up. A 2nd site, the auditory thalamus, just showed an “adult” response to the varying tone at the age of 30 days.Development in the cerebral cortex itself, the “main acoustic cortex”, took even longer, till day 50. If the mice were raised in a noise-neutral environment, the processing of unforeseen noises in the auditory cortex was considerably delayed.One possible explanation for this is that the brain– and the cerebral cortex in specific– forms an internal image of the world throughout development, which it then compares with external stimuli.
