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Wave Patterns

Insight into how we distinguish between very similar memories

15 April 2020

Wave Patterns

You’ll remember your wedding day for years to come, but finding those keys you put down an hour ago can be impossible. The dentate gyrus (pictured), a brain subregion, takes on the challenge of distinguishing between the similar micro-memories that form as we go about the repetitive rituals of daily life by generating unique patterns of activity each time. To investigate this ‘pattern separation’, researchers studied mouse brains and translated a process called feedback inhibition – where the final stage of a process turns off the first – into a computer model. They input two types of brainwaves and found that feedback inhibition contributed to stronger pattern separation in response to high frequency brainwaves, suggesting these help distinguish new events from old. Brain disorders from epilepsy to Alzheimer’s involve changes in the dentate gyrus and brain activity, so understanding how these processes build memories may explain why they fade or fail.

Written by Anthony Lewis

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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