Mechanism for storing, using visual knowledge in the brain is uncovered

Our brain interprets visual information by combining what we see with what we already know. A study published in the journal Neuron by researchers at the Champalimaud Foundation reveals a mechanism for learning and storing this existing knowledge about the world. They found that neurons are wired to connect seemingly unrelated concepts, reports News Medical.

The brain's visual system consists of a network of areas that work together, with lower areas handling simple details (e.g. small regions of space, colors, edges) and higher areas representing more complex concepts (e.g. larger regions of space, animals, faces).

Cells in higher areas send "feedback" connections to lower areas, putting them in a position to learn and embed real-world relationships shaped by experience.

The researchers set about investigating how visual experience influences the organization of these feedback projections, whose functional role remains largely unknown.

"We wanted to understand how these feedback projections store information about the world. To do this, we examined the effects of visual experience on feedback projections to a lower visual area called V1 in mice. We raised two groups of mice differently: one in a normal environment with regular light exposure, and the other in darkness. We then observed how the feedback connections, and cells they target in V1, responded to different regions of the visual field," the authors of the study said.

"We found that with visual experience, feedback provides more contextual and novel information, enhancing the ability of V1 cells to sample information from a broader area of the visual scene,” the researchers noted. This effect depended on the origin within the higher visual area: feedback projections from deeper layers were more likely to convey surround information compared to those from superficial layers.

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