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Short-term memory is based on synchronized brain oscillations
Scientists from Tübingen, Graz, Manchester, Fribourg und London have deciphered how various brain regions cooperate with each other during short-term memory (February 2012).
To keep something in mind for a short period of time is a seemingly simple everyday task. We use our short-term memory when we need to remember a new phone number and don't have pen and paper at hand or when we browse a store for that beautiful dress we just saw in the window display. But despite its apparent simplicity, short-term memory is a complex cognitive process in which several brain regions participate. So far, it has remained unclear whether and how various regions collaborate during information storage. Researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics Tübingen, the Bernstein Center Tübingen, the Bernstein Cooperation Neurovascular Coupling, and the universities of Graz, Manchester, Fribourg and London have now found that electrical oscillations between various brain regions are crucial in order to keep an image in memory over a short period of time .
Read more in the complete press release by the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (in German).
These findings are also featured in the January edition of neuropod, the neuroscience podcast of Nature magazine (second topic in this podcast):
Picture on preview page: © Stefanie Liebe/Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics