Brain complexity: observed memory formation (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, May 03, 2018, 22:39 (2396 days ago) @ David Turell

In mice watching other mice, they use their brain to record it and it is used in avoidance later:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-05-scientists-neural-interactions.html

" If you saw a friend get chased by a neighborhood dog, for instance, you would learn to stay away from the dog without having to undergo that experience yourself.

This kind of learning, known as observational learning,

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"Previous brain-scanning studies in humans suggested that two parts of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA) are active when we learn by watching others. The ACC is involved in evaluating social information, among other functions, and the BLA plays a key role in processing emotions. However, it was unknown how these regions interact to learn from others' experiences.

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"Once the researchers demonstrated that the mice had learned to connect the cue and the shock simply by watching other mice, they set out to figure out what was happening in the ACC and BLA as the observer mice learned to make the association. They recorded electrical activity in both regions as the mice watched the fear conditioning process, then performed a new type of analysis called neural trajectory analysis, which reveals how neurons change their firing rates as a behavior is learned.

"This analysis, performed by study author and MIT graduate student Chia-Jung Chang, showed that the ACC becomes much more active as the mouse witnesses another mouse's experience. It then relays information about the experience to the BLA, which uses it to form an association between the cue and the shock.

"'The anterior cingulate is transmitting that there is important information to extract from the demonstrator," Tye says. "It's translating socially derived information and sending it to the BLA to assign predictive value there."

"In later experiments, the researchers identified specific neurons in the ACC that connect directly with neurons in the BLA. When they blocked those connections during the observational learning task, the mice did not learn to fear the cue.

"When the researchers blocked the ACC-to-BLA connection in mice that were receiving shocks paired with a tone, there was no effect on the observer mouse's ability to connect the cue with the shock, offering further evidence that this circuit is specifically involved in learning from others.

"'If the animal is having the experience subjectively, it doesn't have to extract information from another animal," Tye says. "That's what allowed us to conclude that the anterior cingulate is providing socially derived information."

"The researchers also showed that the ACC is necessary for more general types of social behavior, such as interacting with a nonthreatening juvenile mouse. ACC input to the BLA is also necessary for learning to fear an aggressive mouse after seeing it interact with another mouse."

Comment: we have evolved from lower animals and they are conscious, but without our consciousness. Our s/s/c has followed these routes of brain connections as we have developed more thinking mind areas. It just shows how the s/s/c interlocks with brain networks.