{"id":1988,"date":"2017-11-15T09:35:35","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T01:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/?post_type=nus-news&#038;p=1988"},"modified":"2024-07-31T16:33:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T08:33:34","slug":"researchers-unravel-new-insights-into-how-the-brain-beats-distractions-to-retain-memories","status":"publish","type":"nus-news","link":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/news\/researchers-unravel-new-insights-into-how-the-brain-beats-distractions-to-retain-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers unravel new insights into how the brain beats distractions to retain memories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\">It was reported that a team of NUS researchers, led by <strong>Assistant Professor Yen Shih-Cheng<\/strong> from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NUS Faculty of Engineering and Assistant Professor Camilo Libedinsky from the Department of Psychology at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, has recently discovered a mechanism that could explain how the brain retains working memory when faced with distractions. The study conducted by the team suggests that while distractions do change the activity of the neurons, they are able to retain information by reorganising the information within the same population of neurons. In other words, the \u201ccode\u201d used by the neurons to maintain memory information morphs to a different code after a distractor is presented. This unexpected finding has strong implications for our understanding of how the brain processes information, which in turn may lead to inspiration for research in artificial intelligence, as well as neuropsychiatric research, where deficits in memory and attention are common. The team\u2019s findings were published online in the prestigious scientific journal\u00a0<i>Nature Neuroscience<\/i>\u00a0on 9 October 2017.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1990\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1990\" style=\"width: 761px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1990\" src=\"\/ece\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/team-working-memory.jpg\" alt=\"Team Working Memory\" width=\"761\" height=\"auto\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1990\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The NUS team (from left) Asst Prof Libedinsky, Research Fellows Dr Roger Herikstad and Ms Aishwarya Parthasarathy, and Asst Prof Yen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><i>Similar reports were carried in:<\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2017-10-unravel-insights-brain-distractions-retain.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Medical Xpress<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2017\/10\/171031101815.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Science Daily<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencenewsline.com\/news\/2017103114370046.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Science Newsline<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hitechdays.com\/browser\/274026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HiTechDays<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brightsurf.com\/news\/article\/103117442574\/nus-researchers-unravel-new-insights-into-how-brain-beats-distractions-to-retain-memories.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brightsurf<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Click here to find out more: <a href=\"http:\/\/news.nus.edu.sg\/highlights\/beat-distractions-retain-memory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/news.nus.edu.sg\/highlights\/beat-distractions-retain-memory<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was reported that a team of NUS researchers, led by Assistant Professor Yen Shih-Cheng from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NUS Faculty of Engineering and Assistant Professor Camilo Libedinsky from the Department of Psychology at NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, has recently discovered a mechanism that could explain how<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":1989,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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