Posted on 06/01/2017 9:01:57 AM PDT by Red Badger
New Western University research shows that neurons in the part of the brain found to be abnormal in psychosis are also important in helping people distinguish between reality and imagination.
The researchers, Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo, principal investigator and professor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Dr. Diego Mendoza-Halliday, postdoctoral researcher at M.I.T., investigated how the brain codes visual information in reality versus abstract information in our working memory and how those differences are distributed across neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex region of the brain. The results were published today in Nature Communications.
"You can look at my shirt, and then if I move out of your vision, even with your eyes open you can still see the colour of my shirt in your mind," explained Martinez-Trujillo, based at the Brain and Mind Institute and Robarts Research Institute at Western University. "That is what we call working memory representations or short-term memory representations - they are abstract, they are imaginary and they don't exist in reality, but in our minds. Real objects in our visual field, we call perceptual representations. We are trying to determine whether there are neurons in the brain that can signal to a person whether a representation is real or imaginary."
By having subjects perform two tasks - one where they had to report the direction of movement of a cloud of dots they could see on a computer screen, and one where they had to report the cloud direction a few seconds after it disappeared based on a memory of the image - they found that neurons in the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex encoded perceived and memorized information to various degrees and in different combinations of strength.
"We might have expected that the neurons that are active when we perceive a visual object are the same ones that memorize it; or, on the contrary, that one group of neurons perceives the object and a completely different group memorizes it; but instead, we found that all of the above are true to a certain extent," said Mendoza-Halliday, first author on the study. "We have perception neurons, memory neurons, and also neurons that do both things."
The Lateral Prefrontal Cortex has been shown to be dysfunctional in individuals with schizophrenia, who have hallucinations or delusions. However, so far, researchers have not been able to pinpoint the source of this dysfunction.
Using machine-learning, the researchers created a computer algorithm that could read out the pattern of neurons firing in the Prefrontal Cortex and reliably determine whether a subject was perceiving a cloud of dots or remembering one they had seen before. Martinez-Trujillo hopes that by pinpointing the specific neurons responsible for distinguishing between reality and imagination, they might be better able to treat disorders like schizophrenia that cause patients to confuse what's real and what isn't.
"I would argue that schizophrenia is not a neurochemical disorder of the whole brain," said Martinez-Trujillo. "It is only a neurochemical disorder in specific parts of the brain."
Currently, pharmacological treatments for these disorders change the neurochemistry in the entire brain, often causing unintended side-effects. By targeting only the specific neurons responsible for these disturbances, Martinez-Trujillo hopes they may be able to minimize these side-effects.
Explore further: Brain cells show teamwork in short-term memory
More information: Diego Mendoza-Halliday et al, Neuronal population coding of perceived and memorized visual features in the lateral prefrontal cortex, Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15471
Journal reference: Nature Communications
Read more at: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-06-specific-neurons-distinguish-reality.html#jCp
These researchers have no idea what they are talking about.
I read the article. They do not understand consciousness or the attributes of consciousness.
I’ve known for years that activity just behind the right prefrontal cortex relates to delusional thinking. However, there is much more to it than what they are addressing.
This actually has to do with the different aspects of consciousness relating to the masculine and feminine traits that result in the emotional vs logical thought processing and also the various characteristics of individuals in same sex relationships.
Unless there is physical damage prohibiting the utilization of brain pathways, thought processing pathways are determined by consciousness.
There are even parallel pathways, each with a differing action potential firing rate which do the same transmission.
The neurons may be swapped in liberals.
I strongly suggest they be called Hillarons.
[[Researchers identify specific neurons that distinguish between reality and imagination]]
They must have only studied republicans then because dems lack those neurons- they believe fantasy is reality
In emotional thought processors the biased perceptions created by the previous emotional perceptual programming events creates a filter causing processing to be hindered in the hippocampus and increased in the amygdala.
In simple terms... young boys with masculine controlling mothers hinders the shift in consciousness from the emotional child to the logical sense of self. It’s a double whammy as the masculine mothers also do not have the ability to emotionally bond with the child in their womb or early years, a necessary step in creating a psychologically stable child.
This logical development suppression by the mother in the child causes the child to develop an unstable emotional consciousness. It even delays puberty in boys.
It creates compartmentalized intelligence in that while the person can have high intelligence in one area, it is not grounded and therefor they typically lack common sense.
Researchers have just identified that physical and emotional pain utilize the same neural pathways. If fact, recent research has shown that taking a Tylenol can decrease emotional pain.
I think this is due to the impact of the drug on the GABA neural receptors in the medial amygdala.
Dopamine in the medial amygdala network mediates human bonding.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Feb 28;114(9):2361-2366. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1612233114. Epub 2017 Feb 13
Author information
Atzil S1, Touroutoglou A1, Rudy T1,2, Salcedo S1, Feldman R3,4, Hooker JM1, Dickerson BC1,5, Catana C1, Barrett LF6,2.
Abstract
Research in humans and nonhuman animals indicates that social affiliation, and particularly maternal bonding, depends on reward circuitry. Although numerous mechanistic studies in rodents demonstrated that maternal bonding depends on striatal dopamine transmission, the neurochemistry supporting maternal behavior in humans has not been described so far. In this study, we tested the role of central dopamine in human bonding.
The results of this study suggest that synchronous maternal behavior is associated with increased dopamine responses to the mother’s infant and stronger intrinsic connectivity within the medial amygdala network. Moreover, stronger network connectivity is associated with increased dopamine responses within the network and decreased plasma oxytocin. Together, these data indicate that dopamine is involved in human bonding.
In addition, a DNC membership card was found in their wallet.
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