Where does abstract classification thinking come from?

The study shows that mice have super abstract ability, so they have complex thinking, and reveal the neural basis related to classification learning.

Image source: Pixabay Source: Max Planck Society Translator Hu Qilin Revised Qi Translation Citation Classification is a tool used by the brain to process almost everything we encounter in our daily lives.

Categorizing information can simplify our understanding of the complex world and help us respond to new experiences quickly and effectively.

A few days ago, a study by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Germany showed that, surprisingly, mice also have good classification capabilities.

The researchers identified the neurons encoding the learning classification and demonstrated how abstract information is represented at the neuron level.

Suppose a toddler is reading a new picture book.

At this moment, he suddenly pointed to an illustration and called "chair".

The child is right, but it seems nothing special to us.

We can easily recognize all kinds of chairs and call them "chairs".

However, this is a breakthrough learning process for young children.

To do this, we need to associate the chairs drawn in the book with the chairs we know, and these chairs may also have different shapes or colors.

How did this kid do it? This answer is the basic element of our thinking-classification.

Sandra Reinert, the first author of the study, said: “Whenever a child encounters a chair, he will remember the experience.

Based on the similarity between the chair and the chair, the child’s brain abstracts the properties and functions of the chair.
Into the category of'chairs'.This allows the child to quickly associate the new chair with the category it belongs to and the information it contains.

"Our brains constantly classify: not only do we classify chairs in childhood, but we classify any information we encounter at any age.

What benefits can this bring us? Pieter Goltstein, the senior author of the study, said: "Our brains are trying to find a way to simplify and organize our world.

Without classification, we cannot interact with the environment so efficiently.

"In other words, if we don’t have this ability, then every time we encounter a chair, we have to learn to sit on it.

Therefore, it is very important for us to classify sensory input, but the brain realizes this.
The underlying process of function is largely unknown.

The classification ability of mice is surprisingly good! Sandra Reinert and Pieter Goltstein with Mark Hübener, research group leader of the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology, and Tobias Bonhoeffer, director , Studied how the brain stores abstract information like learned classification.

Since this is difficult to study in humans, the scientists tested whether the classification of mice is similar
to that of humans.
To verify this, they showed mice Different stripe pattern pictures, and define the classification rules.

One group of mice divides the pictures into two categories according to the width of the stripes, and the other group classifies the pictures according to the direction of the stripes.
The
study found that the mice can learn their own classification rules, and Correctly classify the pictures into the correct category.

After the initial training phase, they can also classify the striped patterns that have not been seen before into the correct category, just like the kid holding a new book.

Not only that, when When researchers change the classification rules, the mice will also ignore the things they have learned before and reclassify the pictures according to the new rules-this is what we humans have been doing when learning new things.

Therefore, this study demonstrated for the first time the degree and accuracy of classification of mice, which is close to our abstract ability.

Neurons gradually develop classification representations.
With this discovery, researchers can study the basis of classification in the mouse brain.

They focused on the prefrontal cortex, the brain area where humans participate in complex thinking processes.

Studies have shown that when the mice classify the striped patterns, certain neurons in this area are activated.

Interestingly, different groups of neurons will selectively respond to different classifications.

Tobias Bonhoeffer explained: "The discovery of classification-selection neurons in the mouse brain is a key point.

This allows us to observe the activity of these neurons from the beginning to the end of learning classification for the first time.

This shows the classification ability of neurons .
Not acquired immediately, but gradually formed during the learning process.

"Classification-selection neurons are part of long-term memory.
Scientists believe that the classification in the prefrontal cortex is only when the acquired knowledge changes from short-term memory to long-term memory.
-Only category-selective neurons play a role.

There, these cells store these categories as part of semantic memory, which is a collection of all factual knowledge.

In this context, it should be remembered that the classification skills we learn are the way the brain uses to understand the world more simply.

However, this also means that these classifications are not necessarily "right" or reflect facts correctly.

By studying the classification and learning of mice, the research adds important details to understanding the neuronal basis of abstract thinking, and reminds us that complex thinking is not unique to humans.

Original link: https://eurekalert.
org/pub_releases/2021-04/m-sow041721.
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