Noted that the very weak energy fields, with values of a millivolt per millimeter, modifying the activity of individual neurons by increasing the timing, the spike-field coherence.
The study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, was partly funded by the project EUSYNAPSE (“From molecules to networks: understanding synaptic physiology and pathology in the brain through mouse models”), which received 8 million euro under the ‘ thematic area ‘Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) of the EU.
The lead author, Dr.. Costas Anastassiou, a postdoctoral fellow at the Californian Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the U.S., he and his colleagues explain how the brain is a complex network of individual nerve cells, neurons, using electrical or chemical signals to communicate with each other .
Every time an electrical impulse runs through the branching of a neuron, a small electric field that surrounds the cell. A few neurons are like people who talk to each other and have brief conversations. But when they are activated together, the effect is that the noise of the crowd during a football match.
That “noise” is the sum of all the small electric fields created by neural organized the activity in the brain. Although it has long been recognized that the brain generates weak electric fields in addition to electrical excitation of nerve cells, these fields were considered epiphenomena, or unnecessary side effects.
No one knew anything about these weak fields since, in fact, usually they are too weak to be measured at the level of individual neurons, their size is in the order of millionths of a meter (microns). So the researchers decided to determine whether these weak fields have any effect on neurons.
The experimental measurement of such weak fields that are enacted or have an effect on a small number of brain cells was not an easy task. Of extremely small electrodes were used at a short distance from a group of neurons of the rat to search for “local field potentials, electric fields generated by neurons. What was the outcome? They were able to measure weak fields, with values of a millivolt (one thousandth of a volt).
Commenting on the results, Dr.. Anastassiou said: “Since it was very difficult to place so many electrodes in a reduced volume of brain tissue, the findings of our research are truly original. No one had been able to achieve this level of spatial and temporal resolution.”
What they discovered was surprising. “We have observed that very weak fields, with values of a millivolt per millimeter, so the net change in the activity of individual neurons, and increase the so-called” spike-field coherence, “the timing at which neurons are activated in relation the field, “he added.
During the violent seizures, for example, parts of the brain generate strong electric fields in the order of 100 millivolts per millimeter. However, this research has shown that energy fields are much weaker, if directed to receptive areas in the neurons.
This “connection” of the energy field could be another mode of coordination in the brain, which differs from the usual channels-neuronal synapses. Dr. Anastassiou suggests that “greater spike-field coherence could improve significantly the amount of information transmitted between neurons, as well as increase their reliability.”
This study combines research on how the “mind” depends on the coordinated in various brain regions. Many neuroscientists believe that the relatively slow activity and almost infinitely twisted evil of neurons and synapses is combined with the speed and efficiency of thought.
“I firmly believe that understanding the origin and function of endogenous brain areas will lead to many revelations concerning information processing in the circuits, which in my opinion, is the level at which they originate concepts and perceptions,” he said Dr. Anastassiou.
“This, in turn, will lead us to investigate how the biophysical creates cognition in a mechanistic way, and this, I believe, is the Holy Grail of neuroscience.”
