Neuroscientistes explain how to improve communication between different regions of the brain

Selective communication between regions of the brain is essential for brain function.
, however, the fragility and sparseness of brain connections is a big barrier.
past decade, neuroscientistes have found ways to overcome this limitation.
recently, scientists from Iran, Germany and Sweden discovered a new role in two-way connections in accelerating communication between brain regions.
their findings have been published in PLoS Computational Biology.
in essence, there are two ways to deal with the fragility and sparseness of brain connections: synchronization or oscillation.
in synchronous mode, neurons release pulses simultaneously as they transmit stimuli.
neurons together have a stronger joint effect on downstream networks than individual neurons.
, in oscillation mode, network oscillation periodically enhances effective connections by regulating the membrane level of the downstream neurons receiving stimuli.
but oscillations need to be synchronized in the sender and receiver networks.
as to how synchronous oscillations occur in the brain, it's an open question," said Ad Aertsen of the Bernstein Center (BCF) at the University of Freiburg in Germany, who co-wrote the study.
ago, we suggested that the resonant properties of neural networks could be used to produce synchronous oscillations.
" neuron network means that when the network is stimulated at a specific frequency, the network begins to oscillate and the input signal has a greater impact.
this view is known as "communication through resonance (CTR). "
, however, CTR presents another problem.
resonance in the network requires multiple oscillation cycles.
addition, this resonance needs to be generated at each downstream stage.
means that cross-network communication is slow.
Arvind Kumar of the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology (KTH), author of the study, explained: "We believe that synchronization and oscillation provide fast and slow communication patterns that can be used in different situations, but we remain cautious about this issue at this time.
possible way to speed up communication is to reduce the time it takes to establish a resonance.
To do this, the team focused on anatomy observations of bidirectional connections between regions of the brain, that is, not only from neurons in the sending network sending signals to the receiving neurons, but also from certain neurons in the receiving network sending signals to the sending network.
"There are very few two-way connections, but they are sufficient to support the loop between the sending and receiving networks," explained Alireza Valizadeh of iran's Institute of Advanced Basic Sciences, co-author of the study.
the role of this circuit is to establish resonances in fewer cycles.
, the circuit amplifies the signal without having to establish resonance in subsequent layers. "It's worth noting that by establishing such a connection loop between a pair of resonant sender and receiver networks alone, network communication speeds can be at least tripled," said Hedyeh Rezaei, a doctoral student at Zanjan University in Iran and a visiting student on the
BCF research project.
Ad Aertsen concludes: "These new findings support the theory of 'communication through resonance'.
importantly, these results suggest that bidirectional connections between regions of the brain have a new function of shaping faster and more reliable communication between regions of the brain.
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