May 16, 2022 — Our ability to learn new things and adjust our approach based on failure and success can be attributed to a multitasking group of neurons, or messenger cells in our brains, suggest results from a series of new lab tests.
The results of the study, published in the journal Science, offer new insight into how our brains manage to keep up with and adjust how we function in a wide variety of situations, whether it’s trying new things or working to improve skills that aren’t quite right. made to measure.
“Part of the magic of the human brain is that it’s so flexible,” says study lead author Ueli Rutishauser, PhD, professor and director of the Center for Neural Science and Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at Los Angeles. “We designed our study to decipher how the brain can generalize and specialize at the same time, two essential elements to help us pursue a goal.”
To examine this, the scientists studied the brain activity of 34 adults with epilepsy who had previously had electrodes implanted in their brains to help identify the origin of their seizures. These electrodes were in a region of the brain known as the medial frontal cortex behind the forehead, which plays a key role in monitoring performance and managing mental abilities.
All of the people in the study had two common cognitive tests. One, known as the Stroop task, asks people to read a written word for a color – like yellow – that is printed in a different colored ink – like purple – and say the color of the color. out loud. The other, known as the Multi-Source Interference Task, asks people to view a series of three numbers – such as 3, 2 and 2 – and then press a button associated with the number that does not appear. only once.
In the first task, people must resolve a conflict in their brain between the word they read and the color they see to get the correct answer. With the second task, people must overcome the impulse to press a button for the number they see most often to get the correct answer.
As people performed these complex tasks, electrodes in their brains showed two types of neurons at work: cells that fired in response to errors and cells that fired after completing difficult tasks. .
“When we observed the activity of neurons in this area of the brain, we were surprised to find that most of them only become active after a decision or action has been taken,” says Rutishauser. “This indicates that this area of the brain plays a role in evaluating decisions after the fact, rather than making them.”
The scientists also found that neurons performing two types of performance tracking – general feedback that tells us something went wrong and specific feedback that tells us exactly what happened – both worked together in the medial frontal cortex.
“We used to think that there were parts of the brain dedicated only to monitoring general domain performance and others only to specific domains,” says Rutishauser. “Our study now shows that is not the case.”
Having a better understanding of how neurons in this region of the brain respond to feedback and learn from failure and success could one day help treat mental health issues that involve abnormal performance tracking, such as the disorder obsessive-compulsive or schizophrenia, says Rutishauser.
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