Here’s how brain filters irrelevant information
New York: Ever wondered how
people are able to read in a noisy cafe, ignoring the ambient chatter and
clattering of cups? Scientists have discovered how the brain filters out
irrelevant information in such circumstances, according to PTI.
To explain how we are able to focus on
a particular sound or information ignoring others, New York University (NYU)
researchers offer a new theory, based on a computational model. “It is critical
to our everyday life that our brain processes the most important information
out of everything presented to us,” said Xiao-Jing Wang, professor at NYU and
NYU Shanghai.
“Within
an extremely complicated neural circuit in the brain, there must be a gating
mechanism to route relevant information to the right place at the right time,”
said Wang. The analysis focuses on inhibitory neurons – the brain’s traffic
cops that help ensure proper neurological responses to incoming stimuli by
suppressing other neurons and working to balance excitatory neurons, which aim
to stimulate neuronal activity.
“Our
model uses a fundamental element of the brain circuit, involving multiple types
of inhibitory neurons, to achieve this goal,” Wang said. “Our computational
model shows that inhibitory neurons can enable a neural circuit to gate in
specific pathways of information while filtering out the rest,” he said.
In
their analysis, led by Guangyu Robert Yang, a doctoral candidate in Wang’s lab,
researchers devised a model that maps out a more complicated role for
inhibitory neurons than had previously been suggested.
Of
particular interest to the team was a specific subtype of inhibitory neurons
that targets the excitatory neuron’s dendrites – components of a neuron where
inputs from other neurons are located. These dendrite-targeting inhibitory
neurons are labelled by a biological marker called somatostatin and can be
studied selectively by experimentalists.
The
researchers proposed that they not only control the overall inputs to a neuron,
but also the inputs from individual pathways-for example, the visual or
auditory pathways converging onto a neuron. “This was thought to be difficult
because the connections from inhibitory neurons to excitatory neurons appeared
dense and unstructured,” said Yang.
“Thus
a surprising finding from our study is that the precision required for
pathway-specific gating can be realised by inhibitory neurons,” added Yang.
Researchers
used computational models to show that even with the seemingly random
connections; these dendrite-targeting neurons can gate individual pathways by
aligning with excitatory inputs through different pathways. They showed that
this alignment can be realised through synaptic plasticity-a brain mechanism
for learning through experience. The study appears in the journal Nature
Communications.
Source | http://www.freepressjournal.in/webspecial/heres-how-brain-filters-irrelevant-information/933366
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Pralhad Jadhav
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