Specifically, the research team identified a phenomenon they term 'network gain' that allowed the brain's internal compass to reorient after the mice were disoriented. This ability to accurately decode the animal's internal head direction allowed the researchers to explore how the Head-Direction cells, which make up the brain's internal compass, support the brain's ability to re-orient itself in changing surroundings. The team recorded the brain's internal compass with unprecedented precision using the latest advances in neuronal recording technology. Reading the brain's internal compass To understand how visual information impacts the brain's internal compass, the researchers exposed mice to a disorienting virtual world while recording the brain's neural activity. "Neuroscience research has witnessed a technology revolution in the last decade allowing us to ask and answer questions that could only be dreamed of just years ago," said Mark Brandon, an associate professor of psychiatry at McGill University and researcher at the Douglas Research Centre, who co-led the research with Zaki Ajabi, a former student at McGill University and now a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University. The findings shed light on how the brain orients itself in changing environments - and even the processes that can go wrong with degenerative diseases like dementia, that leave people feeling lost and confused. Washington, March 28 (ANI): Scientists have gained new insights into the part of the brain that gives us a sense of direction, by tracking neural activity with the latest advances in brain imaging techniques.
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