An article recently published in the prestigious publication “Nature Communications” by an international group of researchers, having as main author Dr. Raul Muresan, from Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, demonstrates the role of an area of the brain with a role in a role in the formation of the smell as involved in hearing.
An area of the brain dedicated to smell helps us and hear photo: Shuterstock
The researchers present the results of an experiment in which they trained mice to solve a task in which the reward was directly related to a smell or a sound, depending on the context, the rules changing during the experiment.
The team of researchers monitored the activity of the brain to understand how the mice learned to recognize the new rules and to adjust their behavior, according to Agerpres.
The analysis of the behaviors observed in the experiment has shown that neurons in the piriform cortex (a region of the brain involved in processing odors) have the ability to adapt in a few seconds from changing the rule, allowing subjects to immediately understand the change of the stimulus to which it was linked. reward (eg sound instead of smell).
Thus, although the piriform cortex is known to be dedicated to processing odors, the researchers have noticed that it also reacts to sounds, indicating that they play a broader role in behavioral adaptation.
“Our results indicate that the feedback axons between the piriform cortex and the olfactory bulb transmit information about the identity of the stimuli and their significance depending on the context, adjusting quickly to environmental changes.”states the authors of the study.
The mechanism discovered by the authors of the study explains why our brain can respond quickly and efficiently to new situations, and understanding this process can have practical applications in treating cognitive or behavioral disorders, such as adaptation difficulties, and can contribute to the development of technologies that mimic flexibility. the human brain.
Also, research opens the way for further studies on how the brain combines information from several senses to guide our decisions.
