They investigated the relationship between brain activity and learning new words in Russia. A paper describing this work was published in Psychophysiology.
Man’s ability to learn new things and acquire new concepts is considered one of the most important differences from most animals. In this context, scientists are particularly interested in figuring out what physiological differences allow humans to do this and how this process is organized. It is especially important to learn how language and speech are taught.
In this context, Anna Pavlova and her colleagues decided to observe 22 volunteers who studied words using magnetoencephalographic indicators (MEGs). It turned out that as the brain moves from the habituation phase to the confident possession phase, its oscillatory activity changes significantly. Neuronal oscillations or neural oscillations are the synchronous activity of neurons subject to some kind of rhythm and, as a rule, associated with the peculiarity of the interaction between them. At the beginning of the training, the activity of the neurons was mostly asynchronous, but gradually transformed into strong synchronized oscillations, clearly distinguishable from the resting state.
“Metaphorically, neural oscillations can be compared to a secure information transmission system. Simultaneous activity allows neurons to form functional connections between distant parts of the brain, meaning all neurons processing the same information start working at the same time. In this case, irrelevant signals are filtered out because they won’t get into a rhythm,” he said. author.
The increase in fluctuations in the beta interval observed at the end of learning may reflect a process of repeated “playing” of the learned relationship between word form and action to fix it in long-term memory. The neurons involved in the formation of the union repeatedly transmit signals to each other until the connections between them become reliable. “When we need to remember something, we do something similar on a conscious level: we repeat the same information over and over until it goes to long-term storage,” said study co-author Vera Tretyakova.
Thus, scientists managed to show exactly how memorization “looks” from a psychophysiological point of view. In the future, the same team of scientists plans to find out what processes are triggered when trying to refresh previously learned knowledge.
Formerly doctors discoveredthat mental disorders can accelerate biological aging.
Source: Gazeta
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