A joint Korean-American research team has uncovered key patterns in how mammalian brains process neural activity. (Image courtesy of KAIST)
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A joint Korean-American research team has uncovered key patterns in how mammalian brains process neural activity, providing new insights into the structure of neural networks.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on December 24 that researchers led by professors Paik Se-bum and Jung Min Whan, in collaboration with professor Lee Daeyeol from Johns Hopkins University, have identified common temporal processing patterns across different mammalian species’ brain regions.
The cerebral cortex, the brain’s information processing outer layer, is hierarchically organized from lower regions handling primary sensory information like vision, hearing, and touch, to higher regions such as the prefrontal cortex responsible for complex cognitive functions.
Previous research had shown that during spontaneous neural activity (when no specific task is being performed), higher hierarchical brain regions in humans, monkeys, and rodents took longer to process information. However, until now, it remained unclear how processing times varied when actively representing information.
The research team measured neural activity in monkeys, rats, and mice during decision-making tasks and found similar patterns to those observed during spontaneous activity. By confirming these characteristics across both primates and rodents, the study revealed that processing time has been a crucial common variable in mammalian brain evolution.
Notably, the researchers also discovered that the thalamus, located in the brain’s center, showed no variation in processing times between higher and lower regions, despite its close connection to the cerebral cortex in relaying sensory information.
“Unlike the thalamus, the cerebral cortex has a circular structure where information flows both forward and backward through feedback and feedforward connections,” explained Paik. “This study will contribute to our understanding of the neural network circuit structure in mammalian brains.”
The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on December 13.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
