Researchers from Tianjin University in northern China, working with international collaborators, have uncovered a mechanism that helps explain how the brain processes information that evolves over time.
The research, published Saturday (22/11) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that two types of changes in synapses, the small junctions where neurons communicate, work together to allow the brain to treat events that come in succession as if they were placed side by side.
In everyday life, neurons communicate with each other using brief electrical surges that pass through chemical synapses.
Such synapses can change how strongly they transmit signals, both over the long and short term.
Long-term plasticity produces lasting adjustments and is associated with learning and memory, while short-term plasticity produces quick, transient adjustments based on recent activity.
The research team, led by Yu Qiang, a professor at Tianjin University, found that long-term changes can tune short-term dynamics, allowing neurons to read a series of spikes over time as a pattern in space, much like turning a melody into a portrait.
This time-to-space transformation can help neural circuits store more information and better withstand noise without having to build larger networks, although it may require the circuits to work harder when the extra capacity is needed, the study says.
The findings are based on computational models that agree with recent electrophysiological measurements of the neocortex of mice and humans, adding to the belief that the mechanism reflects how the brain actually works.
"This research is like discovering the brain's 'collaboration code' for information processing," Yu said.
"This research not only clarifies the fundamental logic of how the brain processes information, but also supports the development of next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) methods that are interpretable and generalizable, marking further progress at the intersection of AI and brain-inspired intelligence."
