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Sparse, small, but diverse neural connections help make perception reliable, efficient

"How the thalamus communicates with the cortex in a fundamental feature of how the brain interprets the world," said Elly Nedivi, William R. and Linda R. Young Professor in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. Despite the importance of thalamic input to the cortex, neuroscientists have struggled to understand how it works so well given the relative paucity of observed connections, or "synapses," between the two regions. To help close this knowledge gap, Nedivi assembled a collaboration within and beyond MIT to apply several innovative methods. In a new study in Nature Neuroscience, the team reports that thalamic inputs into superficial layers of the cortex are not only rare, but also surprisingly weak, and quite diverse in their distribution patterns. Despite this, they are reliable and efficient representatives of information in the aggregate, and their diversity is what underlies these advantages. Essentially, by meticulously mapping every thalamic synapse on 15 neurons in layer 2/3 of the visual cortex in mice and then modeling how that input affected each neuron's processing of visual information, the team found that wide variations in the number and arrangement of thalamic synapses made them differentially sensitive to visual stimulus features. While individual neurons therefore couldn't reliably interpret all aspects of the stimulus, a small population of them could together reliably and efficiently assemble the overall picture.

Tuning into a person's individual brainwave cycle boosts learning

Scientists have shown for the first time that briefly tuning into a person's individual brainwave cycle before they perform a learning task dramatically boosts the speed at which cognitive skills improve. Calibrating rates of information delivery to match the natural tempo of our brains increases our capacity to absorb and adapt to new information, according to the team behind the study. University of Cambridge researchers say that these techniques could help us retain "neuroplasticity" much later in life and advance lifelong learning. "Our brain's plasticity is the ability to restructure and learn new things, continually building on previous patterns of neuronal interactions. By harnessing brainwave rhythms, it may be possible to enhance flexible learning across the lifespan, from infancy to older adulthood," Kourtzi said. The findings, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, will be explored as part of the Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualised Cognition: a research collaboration between Cambridge and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.

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