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In Motor Learning, New Brain Connections Form Rapidly

Posted by kdawson on from the reaching-out dept.

Science Daily has a report on research demonstrating directly that new connections begin to form between brain cells almost immediately as animals learn a new task. A team lead by researchers at UC Santa Cruz performed "...detailed observations of the rewiring processes that take place in the brain during motor learning. The researchers studied mice as they were trained to reach through a slot to get a seed. They observed rapid growth of... synapses between nerve cells in the motor cortex... The study used mice that had been genetically altered to make a fluorescent protein within certain neurons in the brain. The researchers were then able to use a special microscopy technique (two-photon microscopy) to obtain clear images of those neurons near the surface of the brain. The noninvasive imaging technique enabled them to view changes in individual brain cells of the mice before, during, and after the mice were trained in the seed-reaching task."

6 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just had to do it. by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 2, Informative

    Oh, come on. Women don't know how to drive stick, much less drive at all. They'd never get licensed if it weren't for their tits.

    Nothing is more frightening than a soccer-mom behind the wheel of an Escalade or Expedition with a cell phone in one hand, Starbucks grande in the other, steering with her knees while her frightened kids cling to their back seats.

  2. Re:Just had to do it. by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Informative
    They flip on a dime. True story: saw an accident between a Honda Del Sol and a Ford Expedition* at an intersection. The Del Sol was dented but able to drive away from the scene while the Expedition was flipped, turned upside down with the passenger-side roof smashed-in. The expedition apparently "jumped" the Del Sol on one side like a ramp and flipped right over.

    * The laws of physics work on more than 2 dimensions. From this:

    People believe that the bigger their vehicle, the safer they are. That perception has propelled the SUV industry into one of the fastest growing car markets in the United States. Unfortunately, that perception is not correct. SUV's, have a disturbing tendency to roll over which results in more serious accidents. Just about every make and model of SUV's have this problem...

    What causes SUVS to flip and rollover? SUVs have a higher center of gravity because they are taller, have higher ground clearance and a narrower distance between their wheels. This higher center of gravity makes it easier for SUVs to tip over. In fact, the heavier the vehicle, which SUVs tend to be, the more likely the vehicle will tip over.

  3. Re:I don't understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Does anyone have a car analogy to help with this one?

    Sadly not, but I can use an Internet analogy.

    As the Internet acquires more porn, the number of tubes that are plumbed increases faster than they do for any other situation; because of the huge demand for porn, porn tubes have become faster to build and deploy. As a consequence, porn is more readily available; the Internet has "learned" to have more porn.

    --Ted Stevens

  4. Re:hmm by SunTzuWarmaster · · Score: 4, Informative

    Current student of Ken Stanley in Neuroevolution and Generative Development this semester.

    Parent is correct: The devil is in the details. A Neural Network is a _model_ of what actually happens in the brain. It is an approximation. There are a number of things that the model does not account for, such as the growth of new connections (somewhat accounted for in the GA-NN NEAT), and the exponential response nature (accounted for in CRTNN networks).

    CPPNs are a model to account for generative development, rather than Neural Networks. The hope is to get a full system without going through the actual step-by-step constructive development of it. To this end, it is successful.

    You can find more information about the subject, or implement your own CPPN network here: http://www.cs.ucf.edu/~kstanley/neat.html

    The article presents a good argument that the ANN model is at least partially incorrect on its approximation of brain development. ANNs do not add connections after the topology is created. This could provide interesting new developments to the AI crowd.

  5. Woah by Nazlfrag · · Score: 3, Informative

    I just learned kung-fu.

  6. Re:Duh? by tburkhol · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dogma has been that the brain does two kinds of learning - short term and long term. Short term learning happens within a few (or even a single) depolarization, lasts for a few hours, and is perfect for learning that the path is wet today. Long term learning has been seen as a separate, but related process, where repeated neural activity triggers new protein synthesis, and that synthesis results in new synapse formation. That process is thought to require repetition over minutes to hours, results in learning that lasts for days to weeks, and is well suited for learning that this path goes to grandma's house.

    To find synaptic remodeling after a single training trial would require some revamping of that model. It seems reasonable enough, especially in more complex brains. A lot of what we know about the biochemistry of learning comes from invertebrates with fewer than 1e5 neurons. Even a mouse brain has ~1e8 neurons, which means there are a lot more opportunities for reinforcing signals, internal repetition, and god knows what else that might accelerate the long-term learning process we see in invertebrates.