How brain learns to pay attention decoded - Indian Express

Press Trust of India : Washington, Mon Jul 29 2013, 16:28 hrs Researchers from Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine and the University of California Davis studied commun ications between synaptically connected neurons under conditions where subjects shifted their attention toward or away from visual stimuli that activated the recorded neurons. Using this highly sensitive measure of attention's influence on neuron-to-neuron communication, they were able to demonstrate that attention operates at the level of the synapse to improve sensitivity to incoming signals, sharpen the precision of these signals, and selectively boost the transmission of attention-grabbing information while reducing the level of noisy or attention-disrupting information.(Reuters) Researchers have uncovered the cellular mechanisms behind human brain's ability to pay attention to relevant information while ignoring distractions. Despite much study of attention in the brain, the cellular mechanisms responsible for the effects of attention have remained a mystery until now, researchers said. Researchers from Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine and the University of California Davis studied communications between synaptically connected neurons under conditions where subjects shifted their attention toward or away from visual stimuli that activated the recorded neurons , sharpen the precision of these signals, and selectively boost the transmission of attention-grabbing information while reducing the level of noisy or attention-disrupting information. The results point to a novel mechanism by which attention shapes perception by selectively altering presynaptic weights to highlight sensory features among all the noisy sensory input. "While our findings are consistent with other reported changes in neuronal firing rates with attention, they go far beyond such descriptions, revealing never-before tested mechanisms at the synaptic level," said study co-author Farran Briggs, assistant professor of Physiology and Neurobiology at the Geisel School of Medicine. In addition to expanding our understanding of brain, this study could help people with attention deficits resulting from brain injury or disease, possibly leading to improved screening and new treatments, researchers said. The study was published in the journal Nature. ALSO READ World Hepatitis Day: Research shows countries ill-equipped to cope with epidemic Tarun Tahiliani ends IBFW 2013 Tooth loss may affect memory: study Alcohol affects men and women differently Please read our terms of use before posting comments TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s). via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFXtC6nuDIUDjBbuk5UUoO1FMs_6A&url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/how-brain-learns-to-pay-attention-decoded/1148231/

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