To explore how such memories are recorded, the researchers showed ten volunteers three short films and asked them to memorise what they saw. The films were very simple, sharing a number of similar features - all included a woman carrying out an everyday task in a typical urban street, and each film was the same length, seven seconds long. For example, one film showed a woman drinking coffee from a paper cup in the street before discarding the cup in a litter bin; another film showed a (different) woman posting a letter.
The volunteers were then asked to recall each of the films in turn whilst inside an fMRI scanner, which records brain activity by measuring changes in blood flow within the brain.
A computer algorithm then studied the patterns and had to identify which film the volunteer was recalling purely by looking at the pattern of their brain activity. The results are published in the journal Current Biology.
"The algorithm was able to predict correctly which of the three films the volunteer was recalling significantly above what would be expected by chance," explains Martin Chadwick, lead author of the study. "This suggests that our memories are recorded in a regular pattern."
Although a whole network of brain areas support memory, the researchers focused their study on the medial temporal lobe, an area deep within the brain believed to be most heavily involved in episodic memory. It includes the hippocampus - an area which Professor Maguire and colleagues have studied extensively in the past.
They found that the key areas involved in recording the memories were the hippocampus and its immediate neighbours. However, the computer algorithm performed best when analysing activity in the hippocampus itself, suggesting that this is the most important region for recording episodic memories. In particular, three areas of the hippocampus - the rear right and the front left and front right areas - seemed to be involved consistently across all participants. The rear right area had been implicated in the earlier study, further enforcing the idea that this is where spatial information is recorded. However, it is still not clear what role the front two regions play.
2More
1More
Announcing the NEW Masters Gathering 2012 with Harrison Klein* - 0 views
1More
Hemorrhoids Treatment Reviews | Hemorrhoids Treatment | Piles Treatment Reviews - 0 views
1More
Complete Dental Implant Treatment Toronto | Cosmetic Dentistry Blog - Dr. Stephen Phelan - 0 views
1More
Information and background information on investment - 0 views
1More
How to Provide Companionship Services To the Elderly at Your Own Home - 1 views
Rekindling Love In Your Relationships - 2 views
1More
Overview of Back Pain Specialists In Chicago - 0 views
1More
Aspects Related To Back Pain Specialists In Chicago - 0 views
1More
Key Facts Associated with Back Pain - 0 views
doggie dog - 0 views
675+ FREE Chances For A Summer Of Personal Transformation | Soul's Talking Brain - 0 views
True HAPPYness comes from… | Soul's Talking Brain - 0 views
« First
‹ Previous
81 - 100 of 167
Next ›
Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page