How the EEG controls the working memory revealed in the latest research

byian dooley

The ability to hold and process information in a short time "Working memory"The latest research reveals how the brain controls the brain.

New study reveals how brain waves control working memory | MIT News
http://news.mit.edu/2018/new-study-reveals-how-brain-waves-control-working-memory-0126

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) neuroscientists, the brainBeta waveWe have the ability to control thinking with low frequency brain waves called so. According to MIT's research team, in the work where information that requires help from working memory is required, the brain can use intentionally to distinguish information stored in different places using beta wave doing. This is a discovery that supports the scientists' hypothesis that beta waves are useful not only to retrieve memories but also to clear up memories when they need help from working memory.

This discovery is based on a research institute on MIT's memory "The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory"This is the result of the research conducted by Michael Lundquist, Ph.D. Lundqvist said, "Beta waves can influence behavior by controlling when the information held in working memory is issued, which will work as if it were a brake." It is.

byChansereypich Seng

There are millions of neurons in the brain, and each neuron generates its own electrical signal. The vibration generated by combining this electric signal is brain wave, and this brain wave has various frequencies.Research in 2016Lundqvist and Professor Earl Miller,Gamma waveDiscovered that it relates to coding and retrieval of sensory information, but the latest research revealed how beta waves control working memory.

We also discovered that beta waves decrease as gamma waves increase, while beta waves increase as gamma waves decrease. In addition, previous studies have revealed that beta waves are related to top-down information such as "current goal" and "how to achieve goal".

byChristopher Campbell

These evidences "help the theory that it is theorized that the beta wave functions as a control mechanism to determine what information is read from working memory, and this is a brain function that controls conscious thought It can be said, "Professor Miller says. In addition, "Working memory is like a sketchbook in consciousness, it is under our control, we can choose what we think about by our own will".

In order to investigate the relationship between beta wave and working memory, the research team recorded the brain activity of the prefrontal cortex where trained animals are used to accommodate working memory. First let the animal show a pair of objects, such as A after B, to determine whether the objects in the pair match. Then, when observing the brain activity while judging whether or not the pair matches, as the gamma wave rises, it tries to hold a specific memory from the working memory, and when the beta wave rises, it tries to erase the specific memory The research team is insisting.

About this, Professor Miller says, "Beta wave and gamma wave interaction will work as expected by the decision making mechanism.Beta wave acts like a gate to control access to working memory and erases working memory It is useful to switch from one thought to another though. "

byNick Herasimenka

In another research published recently in the journal Neuron, interaction is seen between the beta wave and the gamma wave in the same task of categorizing the dot pattern. If two patterns are easy to distinguish, there are many gamma waves carrying visual information during identification, and conversely when the identification task becomes difficult, the beta wave increases and it is said that the experience of categorization work in the past was evoked.

Other,Bulletin of the National Academy of SciencesWas posted onthe study, It has been found that beta waves are generated by deep layers of the prefrontal cortex and gamma waves are generated in the surface layer that processes sensory information. The study also discovered that the beta wave controls the interaction of two different types of brain waves.

Researchers are investigating what other brain functions are controlled by beta waves and gamma waves, and by investigating the interaction of beta wave and gamma wave, why do some information at once I hope that it helps explain whether it is difficult to hold and hold.