Researchers at UC San Francisco have observed a new feature of neural activity in the hippocampus — the brain’s memory hub — that may explain how this vital brain region combines a diverse range of inputs into a multi-layered memories that can later be recalled.
Using a special “micro-grid” recording device developed by colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the UCSF researchers were able to measure hippocampus activity in study participants undergoing surgery to treat severe epilepsy. They discovered that brain waves travel back and forth across this structure, integrating messages from different areas of the brain, and showed for the first time what scientists previously had only been able to hypothesize.
“Brain recordings are an important part of guiding epilepsy surgery,” said Edward Chang, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery and the…
