WASHINGTON — New research released today provides insight into one of neuroscience's most intriguing mysteries: how the human brain learns and remembers. These studies — involving topics as diverse as musical memory, "change blindness," and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) — illustrate the profound influence that specific changes in either the brain's structure, function, or both, can have on human behavior.
The research findings were presented at Neuroscience 2011, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.
Specifically, the studies released today show that:
"This research is helping us better understand the extraordinary complexity of what goes on in the brain as we're absorbing, and later recalling, information of all kinds," said press conference moderator Howard Eichenbaum, PhD, of Boston University, an expert on memory formation. "Such research will also help us develop more effective interventions and treatments for brain diseases and conditions that interfere with — and sometimes even destroy — our ability to learn and remember."
This research was supported by national funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, as well as private and philanthropic organizations.
View the full release and summaries at http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=news_111311_humanmemory .