Thanks for the memories
2011-07-01
(Press-News.org) How easy is it to falsify memory? New research at the Weizmann Institute shows that a bit of social pressure may be all that is needed. The study, which appears Friday in Science, reveals a unique pattern of brain activity when false memories are formed – one that hints at a surprising connection between our social selves and memory.
The experiment, conducted by Prof. Yadin Dudai and research student Micah Edelson of the Institute's Neurobiology Department with Prof. Raymond Dolan and Dr. Tali Sharot of University College London, took place in four stages. In the first, volunteers watched a documentary film in small groups. Three days later, they returned to the lab individually to take a memory test, answering questions about the film. They were also asked how confident they were in their answers.
They were later invited back to the lab to retake the test while being scanned in a functional MRI (fMRI) that revealed their brain activity. This time, the subjects were also given a "lifeline": the supposed answers of the others in their film viewing group (along with social-media-style photos). Planted among these were false answers to questions the volunteers had previously answered correctly and confidently. The participants conformed to the group on these "planted" responses, giving incorrect answers nearly 70% of the time.
But were they simply conforming to perceived social demands, or had their memory of the film actually undergone a change? To find out, the researchers invited the subjects back to the lab to take the memory test once again, telling them that the answers they had previously been fed were not those of their fellow film watchers, but random computer generations. Some of the responses reverted back to the original, correct ones, but close to half remained erroneous, implying that the subjects were relying on false memories implanted in the earlier session.
An analysis of the fMRI data showed differences in brain activity between the persistent false memories and the temporary errors of social compliance. The most outstanding feature of the false memories was a strong co-activation and connectivity between two brain areas: the hippocampus and the amygdala. The hippocampus is known to play a role in long-term memory formation, while the amygdala, sometimes known as the emotion center of the brain, plays a role in social interaction. The scientists think that the amygdala may act as a gateway connecting the social and memory processing parts of our brain; its "stamp" may be needed for some types of memories, giving them approval to be uploaded to the memory banks. Thus social reinforcement could act on the amygdala to persuade our brains to replace a strong memory with a false one.
INFORMATION:
To view the video accompanying this press release, please visit our YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/WeizmannInstitute#p/u/0/bKCCYhHUTPE
Prof. Yadin Dudai's research is supported by the Norman and Helen Asher Center for Human Brain Imaging, which he heads; the Nella and Leon Benoziyo Center for Neurological Diseases; the Carl and Micaela Einhorn-Dominic Institute of Brain Research, which he heads; the Marc Besen and the Pratt Foundation, Australia; Lisa Mierins Smith, Canada; Abe and Kathryn Selsky Memorial Research Project; and Miel de Botton, UK. Prof. Dudai is the incumbent of the Sara and Michael Sela Professorial Chair of Neurobiology.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2011-07-01
The study involved 270 adult trauma patients with, or at risk of, significant extracranial bleeding within 8 hours of injury, who also had traumatic brain injury. It was a prospective randomised controlled trial carried out within the larger CRASH-2 trial to quantify the effect of an early short course of tranexamic acid on intracranial haemorrhage.
In May 2011, the CRASH-2 trial collaborators' paper: Effects of tranexamic acid on death, vascular occlusive events, and blood transfusion in trauma patients with significant haemorrhage (CRASH-2): a randomised, placebo-controlled ...
2011-07-01
Tel Aviv — Playing the stock market can be a risky game. And when the market behaves unpredictably, public fear can lead to erratic investment responses and market chaos.
But there is a way to make this fear work in your favor, say Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob and Dr. Yoash Shapira of Tel Aviv University's Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy. The team's recent research demonstrates that a smart stock market portfolio should not only take into account negative correlations on returns among the stocks, but also the dynamics of volatility. "It's a way to ...
2011-07-01
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Whenever it hears an unfamiliar song from a bird of the same species, a zebra finch stops chirping, hopping and grooming. It listens attentively for minutes at a time, occasionally cocking its head but otherwise immobile. Once it becomes familiar with the song, it goes back to its busy routine. (See video.)
In a new study, researchers discovered that levels of microRNAs – short lengths of ribonucleic acid that appear to regulate protein production – go up or down in the songbird brain after it hears a new song. These microRNAs likely represent a new ...
2011-07-01
Knowing how many of you are keen gardeners, and with the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show opening this week, we've decided to share our top 10 garden choices for summer 2011.
1. The beautiful park surrounding the Chateau de Chenonceau in France's Loire Valley hosts the International Garden Festival annually between May and October. It's a fabulous fusion of 'conceptual' gardens created by green-fingered artists and, bizarrely, philosophers! Visit on our Chateaux of the Loire Cycling holiday
2. Majorelle Gardens: designed in 1924 by French expatriate artist, Jacques ...
2011-07-01
University of Alberta researchers have produced a map of Edmonton predicting the most likely locations where vehicles will collide with deer. These collisions can be fatal for drivers and their passengers. The hot spots for deer vs. vehicle collisions virtually encircle Edmonton along the city limit, border line.
Mark Boyce is a U of A ecologist and co author of the paper. Boyce found that the most dangerous rural roadways share three features; Natural vegetation, bushes and trees, run right up to the roadside, the roads pass through a landscape of farm fields and forests ...
2011-07-01
A Johns Hopkins team has discovered in young adult mice that a lone brain stem cell is capable not only of replacing itself and giving rise to specialized neurons and glia – important types of brain cells – but also of taking a wholly unexpected path: generating two new brain stem cells.
A report on their study appears June 24 in Cell.
Although it was known that the brain has the capacity to generate both neurons, which send and receive signals, and the glial cells that surround them, it was unclear whether these various cell types came from a single source. In addition ...
2011-07-01
Generic anti-epilepsy drugs, pharmaceutical products similar to brand-name versions, save consumers billions of dollars each year, but some are different enough from branded formulations that they may not be effective, particularly if patients switch between two generic drugs, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests.
A report on the study, published online and in an upcoming issue of Annals of Neurology, raises questions about whether some generic products are safe and effective when a narrow dose range separates patients from help and harm.
"In most areas ...
2011-07-01
RakeTheRake.com continues its relaunch promotions with more bespoke poker room prizes on offer. Online poker players, even those not tracked to RakeTheRake, can enter Minted Poker's $2500 freeroll and have a chance to win one month's free poker training available for fifty players. There's also the chance to win one of six fabulous packages to the European Masters of Poker in Barcelona, offered by NoiQ!
In addition to these amazing promotions running now, RakeTheRake players have a chance to win portable DVD players and RakeTheRake merchandise if they take a short survey ...
2011-07-01
BOULDER--Researchers have found that areas near commercial airports sometimes experience a small but measurable increase in rain and snow when aircraft take off and land under certain atmospheric conditions.
The new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), is part of ongoing research that focuses on so-called hole punch and canal clouds that form when planes fly through certain mid-level clouds, forcing nearby air to rapidly expand and cool. This causes water droplets to freeze to ice and then turn to snow as they fall toward the ground, leaving ...
2011-07-01
The technology that allows scientists to profile the entire genome of individual tumors offers new hope for discovering ways to select the best treatment for each patient's particular type of cancer. However, these profiles produce huge amounts of data, and the volume alone creates unique analytical problems.
In a study published on-line this week in the journal BMC Medical Genomics, researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah describe a new analytical approach based on a concept called multiplicity, that can organize large amounts of varied ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Thanks for the memories
