store can be a quicksilver thing . The sequence of events that one someone think back may be completely different than another ’s , but why that variety , where memories are put in , and how a person recall them have long been the topic of vivid scientific sketch .
As part of a clinical trial of patients with drug - tolerant epilepsy , researchers at the National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) monitored and recorded the electric activity of the brain in existent - fourth dimension . As retentivity were spur in the patients , the brain demonstrate unequalled neural patterns , which may be used to store memories and replay them after .
Previous research indicates there may be a connexion between epilepsy and the part of the mentality that hold retentiveness . In 1957 , 27 - twelvemonth - one-time AmericanHenry Molaisonunderwent a bilateral medial temporal lobectomy to surgically remove a part of his brain to stop his capture but was unable to form new retentiveness after the procedure .
In this new subject , electrode were surgically implanted in the epilepsy patients to seek and identify where seizure were source in the encephalon . These electrode enter currents as affected role sat in front of a screen and were asked to determine Son pairs like “ cake ” and “ fox ” . Each new connection was evince to be affiliate with a unique neuronic firing pattern in the language center of the brain make out as theanterior worldly lobe . When a patient was later shown one of the words , a standardized pattern was replay milliseconds before the patient remember its pair .
" Memory act as a crucial use in our life . Just as melodic Federal Reserve note are recorded as groove on a record , it appears that our brains store memory in neuronal firing patterns that can be replayed over and over again , " said study writer and Kareem Zaghloul , MD , Ph.D. , a neurosurgeon - researcher at the NIH ’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke , in astatement .
It appear that this activity may be used to put in memories of past experiences , know as episodic memory . Retrieval of episodic memory is thought to trust on replaying past experiences triggered by thing like a familiar scent or a particular call .
" Our outcome support the theme that memories involve coordinated replay of neuronic firing design throughout the Einstein , " said Zaghloul . " Studying how we form and retrieve memories may not only help us sympathise ourselves but also how neuronal circuits break down in memory disorders . "
The findings , which are published inScience , hint that the head may use these discrete succession to store retention and replay them later using a clear-cut electric convention in the neurons .
