Two Brain Areas Compete for Control
The locus coeruleus and the ventral tegmental area compete for control over the formation of memory content. This has been shown by a team of neuroscientists using light-controlled nerve cells.
Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have studied the impact of two brain areas on the nature of memory content. The team from the Department of Neurophysiology showed in rats how the so-called locus coeruleus and the ventral tegmental area permanently alter brain activity in the hippocampus region, which is crucial for the formation of memory. The two areas compete with each other for influence to determine, for example, in what way emotionally charged and meaningful experiences are stored. Dr. Hardy Hagena and Professor Denise Manahan-Vaughan conducted the study using optogenetics. In the process, they genetically modified rats so that certain nerve cells could be activated or deactivated with light. They published their findings in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) on December 30, 2024.
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Primary School Children Outperform All Other Age Groups
A learning experiment with participants of different ages produced surprising results.
The ability to make the connection between an event and its consequences – experts use the term associative learning – is a crucial skill for adapting to the environment. It has a huge impact on our mental health. A study by the Mental Health Research and Treatment Center (FBZ) at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, shows that children of primary school age demonstrate the highest learning performance in this area. The results pave the way for a fresh perspective on associative learning disorders, which are linked to the development of mental illness later in life. The researchers published their findings in the journal Communications Psychology on December 16, 2024.
Until now, it was unclear how associative learning develops over different stages of life. This is why the team headed by Professor Silvia Schneider, Professor of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and Dr. Carolin Konrad conducted the first systematic study of this ability in infants, children, adolescents and adults. In the study, test participants had to learn to react to a stimulus with a specific response.
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“Wahrnehmen & Verstehen – die Welt, sich selbst & andere”
“Perceiving & Understanding – the World, Oneself, & Others”
Forschende aus der Philosophie der drei Ruhrgebietsuniversitäten zeigen im Dortmunder U optische Täuschungen.
Vom 28. Februar bis zum 6. April 2025 können Gäste der Ausstellung „Wahrnehmen & Verstehen – die Welt, sich selbst und andere“ die faszinierenden Prozesse der menschlichen Wahrnehmung erkunden. Die Ausstellung auf der Hochschuletage des Dortmunder U wird vom MERCUR-geförderten Projekt „SAPHIR – Systematic Analytic Philosophy in the Ruhr Area“ unter Beteiligung der Philosophie-Institute der Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Albert Newen), der Technischen Universität Dortmund (Katja Crone) und Universität Duisburg-Essen (Raphael van Riel) organisiert.
https://www.wie-wir-die-welt-sehen.de
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Rubin Special Edition “Extinction Learning” published
All about the work of the Collaborative Research Center 1280.
Do you know this too? You get a new PIN for your debit card, memorize it at home, but then stand in front of the ATM and all that comes to mind is your old PIN. This is because your brain still associates your old PIN with this place. Presumably a bearable problem if it’s only about withdrawing money. However, if you have learned to associate neutral experiences with fear and cannot get rid of it, this can have serious consequences. The reason is that relearning – also known as extinction learning – does not work properly.
The team from the Collaborative Research Center 1280 “Extinction Learning” investigates what happens in the brain during extinction learning, why context is crucial and what this means for overcoming fear and pain. The researchers report on their work in a special edition of the science magazine Rubin. It was published on January 7, 2025 and is available online.
A Small but Powerful Brain
Pigeons are hard-working learners. And quite clever. A stroke of luck for the Bochum biopsychologists, who, thanks to them, are making advances into the fundamental mechanisms of extinction learning.
A yellow square lights up. Peck! The pigeon hits the glowing square with its beak. Shortly after, a flap at its feet opens up and releases a food pellet, which disappears into its beak in an instant. With the aid of rewards of this kind, pigeons quickly learn to associate the reaction to an actually neutral stimulus such as the illuminated square with a positive outcome. The Biopsychology research group at Ruhr University Bochum, however, is above all interested in what happens when the birds have to relearn, i.e. if the yellow square suddenly no longer results in a reward. The mechanisms of this extinction learning are the focus of Collaborative Research Center 1280.
Unlike in many other experiments, Bochum biopsychologists Dr. Roland Pusch and Professor Onur Güntürkün work with birds instead of mice, rats, or humans. “We are studying an animal whose last shared ancestor with these three species lived 324 million years ago: the pigeon,” explains Onur Güntürkün. The reason for this is simple: Pusch and Güntürkün are searching for the fundamental components of extinction learning that should even be the same in species far distant from humans from an evolutionary perspective.
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The Value of Curiosity
Fundamental research: Many people in academia are concerned with the pursuit of knowledge, without an explicit application in mind. Is that a good thing? A commentary by Onur Güntürkün.
Many researchers are familiar with this situation: They are asked what they are working on, talk about their project and then hear the question: What is it good for? I too am familiar with this situation. My research group is interested in how the brains of birds and humans work and how behavior arises. Like many other basic researchers, we cannot answer the question about the meaning of our work by claiming that we want to cure a disease, stop climate change or develop a new product for industry. We do research to gain knowledge. Does that make sense? Yes, it does.
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