A model that shows how
connections in the brain must change to form memories could help to develop
artificial cognitive computers. Exactly how memories are stored and accessed in
the brain is unclear. Neuroscientists, however, do know that a primitive
structure buried in the center of the brain, called the hippocampus, is a
pivotal region of memory formation. Here, changes in the strengths of
connections between neurons, which are called synapses, are the basis for
memory formation. Networks of neurons linking up in the hippocampus are likely
to encode specific memories.
Since direct tests cannot be
performed in the brain, experimental evidence for this process of memory
formation is difficult to obtain but mathematical and computational models can
provide insight. To this end, researchers at the A*STAR Institute for Infocomm
Research, Singapore, have developed a model that sheds light on the exact
synaptic conditions required in memory formation. Since direct tests cannot be
performed in the brain, experimental evidence for this process of memory
formation is difficult to obtain but mathematical and computational models can
provide insight.
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