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Scientists have discovered that every cell in the human brain seems to have an inherent ability to process information. By examining neurons taken directly from human brain tissue, researchers were able to record some of the first electrical recordings of individual cells, providing insight into our intelligence.
The size of the brain was closely related to our success as a species – as our brain grew, we became smarter. However, studying exactly what is happening in our heads is by nature difficult. Most of our knowledge about neurons and their function comes almost exclusively from rodent research.
"Testing the hypothesis that human neurons are different from other species is extremely difficult because it is very difficult to obtain living human brain tissue," said Mark Harnett of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
We know that cortical neurons are larger in the human brain than in other species. However, the impact of this size on synaptic integration is not clear: it is the process by which an individual neuron processes the information and converts it into an output signal.
In a study published in the journal CellHarnett and his colleagues examined how the cells of the human brain function at an extreme level of detail. Brain cells were provided to the team by Sydney Cash, Massachusetts General Hospital. He has extracted patients treated for a type of epilepsy.
This involved removing the tissues from deep within their brains. "To do this, we had to remove the overlying cortex," Cash said. "This region of the brain [is] thought to be responsible for higher order cognitive processing. We then took this piece of tissue and placed it in a specialized artificial spinal fluid and we handed it to Mark's group. "
At MIT, the researchers split the human brain into thin slices and then recorded the electrical activity of individual neurons.
Previous research has shown that human brain cells have dendrites (tree-like structures that receive most of the inputs) much longer than rats. After observing the electrical activity, the team discovered that human cells treated the information differently from rats, largely because of differences in size.
"These signals had to travel much further in humans than in rats, which allowed for improved signal compatibility," said study author Lou Beaulieu-Laroche.
The other difference was ion channels. It is the protein that acts as a pore allowing electrical currents to enter and exit a cell. The researchers found that there were fewer ion channels in humans than in rats, potentially increasing the resistance of human dendrites, thus improving information processing by the cell.
"The human brain contains about 86 billion brain cells called neurons. Neurons are thought to represent basic units of information processing … Distinct information processing capabilities at a level of individual neurons are likely to have an impact on cortical computation in the brain. human brain, "said Beaulieu-Laroche.
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