VR (virtual Reality) Deciphers Insights on Neural Learning

Learning in neurons (brain cells) has been explored through VR (virtual reality) experiment with rats at the University Of California - Los Angeles, published in the journal Nature.

Learning, memory, and navigation have been the well-established role of the brain region called the hippocampus. Understanding the functions of networks of millions of neurons at the circuit level in the hippocampus might be an important step toward the development of treatments for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and epilepsy.

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‘Learning in hippocampal neurons (brain cells) has been explored through VR (virtual reality) experiments with rats. This provides evidence to test virtual reality for early diagnosis and evaluation of various neurological disease and their treatments.’

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“The hippocampus is one of the first regions to be affected in memory-based diseases like Alzheimer’s. So it is crucial to understand its functionality, flexibility and limits,” says the study’s lead author, Jason Moore, a former UCLA postdoctoral scholar who is now at New York University.

Virtual Reality (VR) in Neurons

The scientists thus studied rats in a virtual reality maze to understand individual neurons in each animal’s hippocampus. The rats were encouraged to navigate through the maze to find their reward, a drop of sugar water.

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This VR technology (developed in Mehta’s lab) specifically keeps the animals comfortable and avoids causing dizziness and other symptoms that other VR systems can trigger.

It was observed that hippocampal neurons encoded multiple aspects of the animal’s location — where it is in space, the angle of its body relative to its reward, and how far it has moved along its path — a phenomenon called “multiplexing.”

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Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, study looks for brain areas that are activated as memories are recalled, especially in the hippocampus.

Neuroplasticity and Learning

It is known that process of neural activity changes – neuroplasticity is mediated by a neurochemical called NMDA, which is a common target for drugs used to treat neurological disorders.

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In the present study, it was also observed that on injecting the animals with substances to inhibit their NMDA, in turn, impair their performance in the maze.

“Remarkably, neuroplasticity was far greater in the virtual reality environment than in simpler, real-world mazes. Further, this boosted neuroplasticity was related to performance,” says Mehta, a UCLA professor of neurology, neurobiology, and physics.

The team anticipates conducting similar research on rats and on humans with memory impairment, to test whether virtual reality can be used for early diagnosis and to evaluate the effectiveness of medications.

Source-Medindia