Scientists have long understood that the region of the brain called the hippocampus is important for memory, learning and navigation.
Scientists have long understood that the region of the brain called the hippocampus is important for memory, learning and navigation.
Now, scientists in a UCLA lab led by neurophysicist Mayank Mehta are gaining a deeper understanding of how the hippocampus works on a circuit level — that is, functions involving networks of millions of neurons. That knowledge could be an important step toward the development of treatments for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and epilepsy, all of which are related to dysfunction in the hippocampus.
In their latest study, published in the journal Nature, the scientists studied rats in a virtual reality maze. While observing the activities of large numbers of individual neurons in each animal’s hippocampus, the scientists discovered responses in those neurons that revealed a specific mechanism for navigation.
“The hippocampus is one of the first regions to be affected in memory-based diseases like Alzheimer’s,” said the study’s lead author, Jason Moore, a former UCLA postdoctoral scholar who is now at New York University. “So it is crucial to understand its functionality, flexibility and limits.”
Read more at University of California - Los Angeles
Image: UCLA scientists observed the activity of large numbers of neurons in the brains of rats while the animals navigated a virtual reality maze. (Credit: Mehta Lab/UCLA)
