New insights about brain organization

February 23, 2004 | Source: KurzweilAI

New evidence from rat studies suggests that theories about how the brain processes sight, sound and touch may need updating.

Researchers found that while large regions are overwhelmingly devoted to processing information from a single sense, in the borders between them, cells can share information from both senses.

“This represents a new view of how the brain is organized,” said Mark Wallace, an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist.

He said these multisensory cells might also help explain how individuals who suffer a loss of one sense early in their life often develop greater acuity in their remaining senses.

Wallace said the finding is also important because it suggests that the process of integrating sensory information might happen faster in the cerebral cortex than was previously thought.

The researchers reported their findings in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center press release