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  • Essay / Brain Positioning System

    Introduction: One of the fundamental functions of the brain is to navigate in space. This ability depends on the ability to have a sense of position which, in turn, is linked to the sense of orientation, distance and knowledge of previous positions a person has passed through. A man depends on it for his daily activities, from finding his car key to locating his house. In the case of animals, they do not react passively to external stimuli. Rather, they learn facts about the world and use them when necessary. This was discovered by Edward Tolman. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Seahorse and Its Function: Seahorse is the Greek name for a mythical sea monster, hippopotamus means "horse" and kampos means "sea monster". When a seahorse is cut in cross section, it resembles a ram's horn. For a long time, research has been focused on understanding the mechanism and role of the hippocampus in memory formation. Discovery of a place cell in the hippocampus: By the late 1960s, single-cell neuronal recording in awake rats was cutting-edge technology. Using the brain atlas, tiny wire electrodes were guided to a specific area of ​​interest in the brain. When the electrode tip is close to a neuron, the electrode can record the action potentials of that neuron. In an experiment with rats, Jhon O'Keefe, an expert in recording neurons using these techniques, recorded neuronal activity from the hippocampus as the animal engaged in various behaviors. This approach proved to be quite faithful as they discovered neurons in the rat's hippocampus that showed activity correlated with the rat's location in its environment. They called these neurons “place cells.” The placed cells fire when the animal moves to a specific location in the environment, which matches the localization field of that particular neuron. Cells from this location were first found in the pyramidal cell layer of area CA1 of the hippocampus. Later, other groups showed that the CA3 area of ​​the hippocampus also has place cells. Placing cells that fire in one part of the animal's environment is not due to anything the animal does there or its motivation to get to that location. Rather, they appear to be a cognitive process, signaling the animal's position in an environment, regardless of its behavior and motivational state or the reward properties of that location. John O'Keefe's discovery of place cells in the hippocampus sparked new interest in this area despite the skepticism of some researchers. Remapping place cells: In 1987, Bob Muller and his colleagues discovered that place cell maps are completely different. in two environments, knowing the location of the firing range in the first environment will not predict the location of the firing range in the second environment. Changing the shape of a speaker invariably induces a complete remapping. To be brief, the hippocampal map of space is sensitive to non-spatial factors and understanding these factors will be essential to decoding the relationship between hippocampal maps and memory. Head direction cells and boundary cells: in order to maintain spatial orientation and guide navigation, an animal must be aware of its location, movement or distance, and direction relative to that