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Hippocampus of the Brain an Active Decision-making Process, Not Long-term Memory Storage
Conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Minnesota Medical School, the study of rats navigating a maze found that replays occurring in the hippocampus were not necessarily recent or frequent paths through the maze, as would be expected if the event was being added to memory.
On the other hand, the replays often were paths that the rats had rarely taken or, in some cases, had never taken, as if the rats were trying to build maps to help them make better navigation decisions.
Dr. Anoopum Gupta, and his colleagues said that their findings suggest replays in the hippocampus are not merely passive echoes of past events, but part of a complex, active process of decision-making.
"Our work provides clues into how animals construct a complete, fully navigable representation of their environment, even if they've only partially explored that environment. The cognitive maps created in this way may allow animals to plan novel routes or shortcuts. As we learn more about the neural mechanisms that enable animals to flexibly navigate through the world, we hope to apply those lessons to research in robotics that could improve autonomous navigation systems," said Gupta.
The team used electrode "hats" to record brain activity of rats as they navigated a maze. In particular, they monitored certain neurons, called place cells, which fire in response to physical locations.
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