In a new study, neuroscientists have been able to track the "movement" of thought in the human brain. The results confirmed that the prefrontal cortex plays the role of a “coordinator” of interactions between different regions of the brain.
In a new study by researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, the electrical activity of neurons was recorded using electrocorticography (ECoG). This method requires hundreds of tiny electrodes placed directly on the cerebral cortex. In the case of ordinary subjects, the use of ECoG is unethical, so the specialists decided to conduct tests with epileptic patients, whose brain activity was monitored using electrodes. The new study is briefly reported by the ScienceAlert portal.
Each of the 16 subjects completed a series of tasks (neural activity was monitored and recorded by specialists). Participants in the experiment had to listen to the stimulus and respond, or view images of faces or animals on the screen and then perform an action.
The tasks varied in complexity. For example, a simple task consisted of repeating a word, while a more complex task required coming up with an antonym for it. (The process of "movement" of thought - from the perception of a stimulus to a reaction - can be seen in the two videos below. On the first - in the case of repeating a word, on the second - in the case of choosing an antonym.)
The researchers tracked the very rapid movement of electrical activity from one region of the brain - for example, associated with the interpretation of an auditory stimulus - to the prefrontal cortex and to brain regions responsible for shaping the action, such as the motor cortex.
The study, as discussed above, confirmed the role of the prefrontal cortex in the direction of neural activity. In the case of some assignments, the contribution of this area was quite limited. However, in others, the site has been very active, manipulating signals from different regions of the brain to coordinate word recognition, and possibly also "returning" to memories so that a new response can then be produced. It is noted that the prefrontal cortex remained active almost throughout the entire thought process.
The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
