Scientists Find Brain Region That Helps Maintain Working Memory– www.techexplorist.com

Imagine reading a sentence. By the time you reach the final word, your brain is still holding onto the first few words long enough to make sense of the whole phrase.

The same thing happens when you follow a conversation, solve a math problem, remember a phone number, or decide what to do next. All of these tasks rely on working memory, the mental workspace that temporarily stores and manipulates information. Without it, thinking itself would become extraordinarily difficult.

Now, researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) say they have uncovered an important piece of the puzzle behind this essential cognitive function. In a study published in Nature Communications, they found that a small and often-overlooked brain structure called the claustrum appears to play a critical role in keeping information active in the mind for several seconds after the original stimulus has disappeared.

Their findings suggest that the claustrum may act as part of the neural machinery that bridges perception and thought, and thought and action. Working memory performs a deceptively difficult task.