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Article: Million cell memories; surprisingly large portions of the brain may participate in a simple memory, thus challenging the notion that memory 'traces' are stored in crucial chains of brain cells. (includes related article on cell communication)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- November 15, 1986
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1986 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Million-Cell Memories
A cat peers at two doors and decides that only the door marked with two concentric circles can be nudged aside to obtain a bowl of food. As the cat remembers what it has learned from prior conditioning trials, millions of widely distributed brain cells called neurons begin to work together in complex ways. The animal's memory for the simple response is stoken by as-yet-unrecognized properties of that enormous system of cooperative neurons.
This, at any rate, is the view expressed by a team of scientists in the Sept. 12 SCIENCE. Their contention, which challenges a key aspect of conventional memory theory, stems from radioactively ...