In a first-of-its-kind study, it is demonstrated that the heart and liver are represented in four dimensional space.
A group of German and Japanese neuroscientists has demonstrated the existence of windows in the brain promoting communication between brain regions. The study, led by the Neurophysiology Research Center of the University of Tokyo, was conducted in collaboration with the University of Madrid and is published in the Journal of Neurophysiology.
It is thought that brain regions communicate through various pathways in various brain regions, the most widely-known the so-called habenula, coming from experiments set with rats. The habenula, which is located in the nucleus accumbens, is known for regulating arousal and preventting food intake. It is often associated with voluntary activity.
This new study was conducted in the lab of neurophysiologist and cognitive neuroscientist Kasper Brandt-Herzog from the University Hospitals of the Westfalia, in a collaboration with researchers from the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University.
Results from the study will serve as the basis for a future major overhaul of current research and technological development for scientists working in the field of neural computation.
Klaus Ostrander, visiting fellow at the University of Tokyo, led the work and outlines how it was achieved by using a supercomputer known as Kinda, which has two buses.
What was this study about?
Sixteen healthy young adult male volunteers got the downloadable code and different models of complex mathematical functions for math that were designed by Kinda. Researchers from the University of Tokyo tried to replicate the computations performed in the device, but were unable to. The volunteers’ phenotype has hitherto been investigated only in mathematical tests.
Why didn’t they replicate the computations performed in Kinda.
The reason were not taken into consideration that the researchers were not able to reproduce the computations provided in Kinda in detailed statements of specific brain regions. The lack of specificity was a significant problem.
Results from the study showed that only the brain has the capacity to communicate clearly with each other using verbal words.
This was a question that Brandt-Herzog, who worked on the study alongside Ostrander, wanted to answer. “What is an average-related brain memory from a motor system? How does a brain remember the message? What the brain learns to repeat?”
They collectively searched the results for studies that allowed them to answer the question and “successfully replicate” the computations of Kinda in people. This meant that 30 individuals could be analyzed. Brain regions included the anterior temporal lobe (throat) and cingulate cortex – the part of the brain that projects information to the other parts of the brain.”
