Every second, the cognitive functions of the our brain process a huge amount of information to predict the future and anticipate what will happen in the next moment. Amazing, right? And yet, it is such a natural process that we do not realize it: a mechanism fundamental to our survival. And now, for the first time, scientists have discovered how it works.
The role of the cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex, the largest part of the mammalian brain, plays a crucial role in cognitive functions. In humans, it is responsible for perception, thinking, memory, and decision making. A recent hypothesis suggests that Its main function is to predict future events, processing new sensory information and comparing it with previous expectations.
A study published in the journal Neuron (I link it here) provides significant evidence to support this theory. The research, led by Dr. Yuriy Shymkiv, postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Raphael Yuste, represents an important step forward in understanding the predictive role of the cortex.
The cortex as a memory machine
“We found that the cortex acts as a memory machine, encoding new experiences and predicting the very near future,” explains Shymkiv.
Professor And you emphasizes the importance of this discovery for understanding both the normal functioning of the brain and disorders such as schizophrenia, where the cortex appears to not function properly. What’s new, he explains, is the difference between what we predict will happen and what actually happens.
Cognitive functions and the mechanism of novelty detection
The team began their research by designing a study to identify how mice responded to a combination of familiar and novel sensory stimuli. The stimuli were sounds played at different pitches. After examining the auditory cortex of the mice, they found that groups of neurons responded not only to the sound being played, but also to its novelty.
Interestingly, they observed that each sound left a trace of neuronal activity, which they called an “echo,” which monitored sensory inputs over time and formed short-term memories of recent inputs.
To further investigate these findings, the team built a neural network model of the auditory cortex and trained it to detect novel stimuli. The model replicated what was observed in mice, showing that the networks of neurons also used “echoes” of activity to memorize a model of the environment and use that to detect changes.
Cerebral Cortex Built to “Predict” the Future? Implications for Understanding Schizophrenia
The research, as mentioned, also offers new insights into the primary role that the cerebral cortex plays in schizophrenia. Clinicians have known for years that people with schizophrenia are not good at distinguishing new information from old.
“We are very excited that these findings could deepen our understanding of this crucial part of the brain and potentially offer important insights into when these cognitive functions go awry – and ways to fix them,” he says. And you.
The future of research
The implications of this discovery are far-reaching. Understanding how the brain can predict the future and respond to events could lead to new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders. Not to mention the development of more advanced artificial intelligence systems, inspired by the natural functioning of the brain.
The study shows that predicting the future is not just an accessory function of the brain, but one of its fundamental capacities, deeply integrated into the way we perceive and interact with the world around us.
