Brain topography
Each part of the brain has its own functions. For example, information obtained through vision
is analyzed in the occipital region of the brain.
And the movement
is controlled by a fairly narrow strip of nervous tissue that stretches from the top of the head to the ear, like the earpiece of headphones.
Brain training
Is your memory failing? It’s not surprising, because she suffers without load in the same way as her muscles. Memory development exercises will help you - you can start doing them at any age.
At the same time, vision, hearing, movement, and all tactile sensations are controlled in a mirror way.
So, if a person has a stroke in the left hemisphere, the motor functions of the right side of the body are impaired. Next to the motor area is the area where tactile sensations
.
Therefore, often when the brain is damaged, a person simultaneously loses both the ability to move and the ability to feel. The perception of auditory information
occurs in the temporal region of the brain.
In right-handed people, the left temporal lobe is responsible for understanding words and expressing one's own thoughts. Right temporal lobe – helps to hear music and identify various noises. The area of the brain where the visual and auditory areas meet is responsible for the function of reading
- converting visual images into sounds.
Does the brain remember everything? Conversation with neurophysiologist Olga Svarnik
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Today we have access to a wide variety of scientific instruments and the most advanced technologies. Humanity has accumulated colossal knowledge, both in the natural sciences and in the humanities. However, the human brain remains the “Holy Grail” of scientists and the most complex, little-studied area. What prevents us from studying the brain to the end? How does human memory work and does our brain really remember everything? Olga Evgenievna Svarnik , a neurophysiologist, candidate of psychological sciences, senior researcher at the Laboratory of Psychophysiology named after V.B. Shvyrkova Institute of Psychology RAS.
We all know that the brain is a very complex structure. Tens of billions of neurons, trillions of synapses... Given this complexity, how much are we able to study the brain and what is the main stumbling block in such research today?
We can certainly study the brain. And this is a rather long process, due to the features that you are talking about: a huge number of cells, connections, the cells are all very different. Research over the past decades has shown that there are a huge number of types of neurons, and the deeper we dive into this field, the more new types we find. The process of researching the brain and the cells that make up this brain is almost endless and very interesting.
An important question is how is the brain connected to mental processes? The activity of our neurons is related to what the body is doing. What's remarkable is not only that there are many different types of neurons in the brain, but also that they fire at specific moments that are specific to those neurons. There are neurons that will be active when I talk to someone about the brain, or when I myself think about how the brain works, or even when I sleep and dream about something about the brain. By examining these neurons, we gain access to the inner world of a person.
The main stumbling block in studying the brain is that the huge amount of detail that we obtain about the work of the brain for some reason does not want to fit into some generally accepted theory. And there are some changes in what we understand by how the brain works. There are several different proposals for what these brain principles are. And quite a large number of researchers cannot come to a consensus on this issue. There are a lot of details, but the overall picture has not yet emerged . We can see a similar situation in other sciences, for example, in physics.
Olga Evgenievna, you study memory. Tell us more about this. Is memory located somewhere in the brain or is it a situational process and we do not have a specific memory area?
In short, yes, there is no memory zone. At the same time, the destruction or disruption of certain areas can lead to amnesia. But it's not the same thing. There is short-term memory, there is long-term memory, there is implicit memory, when we have acquired some experience, but we cannot say anything about it and cannot somehow declare it. And there are types of memory where we can say, for example, that we know where the Eiffel Tower is or imagine how neurons work in the brain. These are all different aspects of the phenomenon that is commonly called memory. And when we talk about these manifestations of the brain, we cannot say that memory lies somewhere in a certain place in the brain.
One famous amnesiac named Henry Molaison had surgery to destroy the hippocampal structures and some of the cortical areas that were connected to the hippocampus, leaving him unable to remember anything. He did not have the impression that he could describe any episodes that happened to him. But at the same time, his training still took place, he just could not declare the episodes. Roughly speaking, the patient had information about the episodes, but he simply could not talk about it. And this phenomenon was described 50 years before the case of Henry Molaison. The Swiss doctor Eduard Claparède described a very famous, almost anecdotal case. He constantly shook hands with a patient of his with a similar disorder. The woman also had problems acquiring new memory and the ability to declare episodes from her life. During one of these greetings, the doctor placed a needle in his arm and injected the patient. Subsequently, the patient did not remember this at all, but began to avoid shaking hands with the doctor. It turns out that this experience still remained with the person, and such experience could shape the further interactions of this woman with the world.
In 2021, Olga Svarnik published the popular science book “The Brain in a Minute.”
Is it possible to say that our brain does not forget anything at all, and that what happened once remains forever?
The tendency in modern neuroscience is that the problem of memory is primarily a problem of access to it. The point is not that the memory was somehow lost. If we imagine that any acquired experience is the formation of some kind of neural group that is now associated with it, then it turns out that returning to this experience means activating this group. If we layer more and more other neural groups, moving away in our experience from that original group, then it turns out that we cannot return to it due to the fact that there are already other layers there and the branches of this “tree of experience” have grown considerably.
Experiments on animals show that it is possible to activate the old group that existed before all these layers and return to that moment. And in this sense, of course, we can say that yes, the brain really stores everything if there was an established experience . Around us now there are a lot of short-term moments, which for some short period are also “fixed” by our brain, but at the same time do not move into the long-term phase. But if everything has already passed into long-term memory, then the possibility of losing such a memory is, first of all, the difficulty of finding access to it, or another option is if the cells associated with this memory are destroyed.
How to explain the cases when some smell takes you back to such distant times that you seem to no longer remember, but suddenly the memory comes to life again? Is smell a realm of the subconscious? And how is it related to memory?
Most of what is in our brain works without reaching the level that is commonly called consciousness. But it still constitutes our experience.
In terms of the ability to return to the old neural groups of the experience that was before all the layers, smell plays a universal and very interesting role. That is, the smell helps to revive what we ourselves can no longer get close to: due to the connection of previous experience with many other things that we have become acquainted with in the course of life.
Why is this happening? To be honest, I don’t know the answer to this question, but it has interested me for a long time. Even a picture extremely rarely leads to such a revival of episodes from our past, but smell has such a unique opportunity. This phenomenon has been described many times and colorfully in fiction, but from a scientific point of view it is difficult to imagine what it could be. Why does the smell, not even the sound, have such characteristics? I would also like to know the answer to this question.
Why can we remember for many years some minor details from the distant past that seem to carry no meaning (for example, green socks seen on someone a long time ago, or a dog running past)? Or, as Freud said, there cannot be insignificant details and behind this memory there is some more serious, hidden experience?
Such memories are associated with some general state of the body at that time. Perhaps that state, in its emotional characteristics, really had great significance. Probably, this feature of our memory played a role in evolution: organisms that recorded as many details as possible with the help of their neurons probably received a greater advantage in evolution.
Another aspect is that the state, so important at that moment, could return again and again when we mentally think about the experience. And at the time of one of these returns, these green socks or something else could have been added. Perhaps they were not directly related to that situation, but our memory, after some time, connecting it and layering something else, “decided” that these green socks were very important for that situation. There are various nuances regarding how our memory undergoes various modifications with each reactivation of the neural groups that underlie it. These are also very interesting processes.
It turns out that, in fact, the most accurate memory is the first one, and all other returns, memories of this moment that were layered later, are false? Maybe all our memories are generally incorrect and have little connection with what actually happened?
It is very important to say what these types of memory are. The phenomenon of memory remodeling due to a return to the activation of the earliest neural group is still associated with episodic memory. But semantic memory works the other way around: if we are learning something, for example, trying to remember all the capitals of the world, then repetition is only beneficial and it strengthens our memory. (Semantic memory refers to knowledge (for example, that the Eiffel Tower is in Paris), and not the episode itself of my first vision of the Eiffel Tower). But the episode itself, which we witnessed, tends to change, acquire details that were not there, and lose those that were. Numerous studies suggest that episodic memory may not be given much credit. Whether the episodes from our childhood were exactly as we remembered them is not so simple a question. It may well be that there were similar things, but they looked completely different from how we remembered them.
Lecture by Olga Svarnik “Sleep and Memory” at the Bench RAS.
Olga Evgenievna, you work at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, at the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, and are actively teaching. What attracts you most as a scientist to neuroscience?
As a teacher, I talk about the principles of the brain to various students: from physicists to psychologists. As a scientist, I study the cells that are present in the brain at a variety of levels: these are neurogenetic changes, and changes in electrical activity, as well as changes in overall brain activity recorded using an electroencephalogram in humans.
I am very fascinated by the description and study of behavior, as well as the search for some common patterns between people and animals. My research shows that the process of acquiring some kind of experience (when the body is faced with some new situation for it) leads to the fact that we, first of all, reactivate those neural groups that are associated with something similar: already existing previous experience.
An interesting pattern is observed - how often and consistently we, when acquiring something new, return to the old. Both people and animals, having acquired new experience and found a solution to a new situation, having already added something new to their brain, return again and again to the old: to previously acquired forms of behavior. It’s as if they are testing the old behavior model over and over again, trying to make sure that it really doesn’t work? Didn't you work before? Experiments show that people often do not even realize this. And the question of how far we are returning to the old and why we are doing this is what occupies me most now.
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Interviewed by Yanina Khuzhina.
Frontal lobes – “management company”
The largest part of the brain is the frontal lobe. One of the main functions of this part of the brain is planning
- the ability to perform actions that require several different actions.
In order for the sequence of actions to be correct, the frontal lobes perform another function - organizational
.
Additionally, the frontal lobes play an important role in the control of emotions
.
In the deep parts of the brain there are areas responsible for primitive emotions: hunger, aggression and sexual desire. These structures send messages to the parts of the brain responsible for action. The frontal lobes control this process through the so-called stop function
. So, for example, if emotions dictate to hit the boss, the frontal lobes signal: “Stop, or you will lose your job.” This function is for notification purposes only. The frontal lobes, of course, cannot turn off emotions and stop actions.
Soldiers of the invisible front
At the back of the brain is the cerebellum
.
Its volume is approximately one-eighth the size of the cerebral hemispheres. Despite its small size, this part of the brain controls coordination of movements
(the joint work of all muscles) and
the sense of balance
.
Thanks to the work of the cerebellum, a person can stand on his feet, maintain balance and move around. The brain stem
is located under the cerebral hemispheres and behind the cerebellum.
It connects the spinal cord and brain and controls all the functions that are necessary to maintain life in the body. The trunk is responsible for the involuntary work of muscles during breathing, heartbeat, food digestion and blood circulation. It works automatically and without interruption
.
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The brain stem is also responsible for sorting and distributing messages that the brain receives from the rest of the body.
Another notable area of the brain is the hippocampus
.
This paired formation, located in the temporal lobes of the hemispheres, controls memory
.
More precisely, by transferring information from short-term memory storage to long-term memory. The pituitary gland
is located on the lower surface of the brain - in a special bony cavity called the sella turcica.
The size of the pituitary gland is very small - no more than a pea. Its task is to control the production and release of all hormones
in the body.
Produces the pituitary gland and its own hormones - for example, growth hormone. The hypothalamus
is located practically in the geometric center of the brain.
It synchronizes the work of the nervous and endocrine systems of the body, working closely with the pituitary gland. For example, it is responsible for a kind of internal thermometer that maintains the temperature of the entire body
. If it increases, the hypothalamus sends a complex neurohormonal message that stimulates sweating. If it decreases, it gives a command for muscle tremors.
Memory impairment in cerebrovascular diseases
L.S. Manvelov Candidate of Medical Sciences
People have been trying to understand what memory is and where it is stored since ancient times. Thus, the ancient Greeks believed that information in the form of some particles enters the brain and leaves imprints on its soft substance. Such outstanding figures of the ancient world as the philosopher Plato and the physician Hippocrates considered the brain to be the repository of memory.
According to modern concepts, memory is the ability to store and use received information. The great Russian physiologist I.M. Sechenov called memory “perhaps the greatest miracle of both animal and, especially, human organization.” Modern research methods (psychological, neurophysiological, computed tomography, etc.) have made it possible to get closer to unraveling the mechanisms of memory. So, of course, the sharp remark of the American mathematician John von Neumann is unfair: “We know no more about the nature and mechanisms of memory than the ancient Greeks.” Memory is the main function of the brain. It is now known that it is carried out by almost all areas of the brain, but certain parts of it play a leading role. Thus, to preserve information received from the senses (vision, hearing, etc.), uninterrupted operation of the occipital, temporal and parietal lobes of the brain is necessary. Based on the time it takes to consolidate and retain material, two types of memory are distinguished: short-term and long-term. Short-term memory is characterized by rapid memorization and rapid (within a few minutes) erasure of traces of information. Long-term memory is characterized by the accumulation and long-term storage of information after repeated repetition and reproduction. One of the most common causes of memory impairment is vascular diseases of the brain, which are widespread among the population. Suffice it to say that the most severe of them - stroke - occurs in more than 400 thousand people in Russia every year. However, the bulk of these diseases (60-70%) are initial forms, in which memory impairment is one of the main symptoms. The main causes of vascular diseases of the brain are arterial hypertension and atherosclerosis, which are rightly called “enemies of humanity”, “cold-blooded and mysterious killers”. Mysterious because they can go unnoticed by a person for a long time, gradually undermining his body. However, in any case, two scenarios are possible. The first is a sudden (“out of the blue”) cardiovascular catastrophe in the form of a stroke or myocardial infarction. The second is the slow progression of suffering with the appearance of a number of symptoms, one of which (and not uncommon) is memory impairment. How to avoid cardiovascular diseases and their progression? Preventive examinations are of great importance to identify both early forms of the disease and risk factors that contribute to their occurrence and development, which include those that can be influenced and those that cannot be changed. Risk factors include arterial hypertension, heart disease, diabetes mellitus, smoking, alcohol abuse, psycho-emotional stress, obesity, lipid metabolism disorders, changes in blood fluidity, sedentary lifestyle, as well as age, climatic conditions, etc. Regular physical exercise is of great importance and sports. Back in the 17th century, the French moralist writer Jean de La Bruyère very correctly noted: “Health is what people most strive to preserve and least cherish.” Of course, in the first place here is the decisive need to end bad habits: alcohol abuse and smoking. There is no excuse for a sedentary lifestyle. For vascular diseases of the brain, adequate sleep is necessary - usually at least 8 hours. To normalize it, before resorting to sleeping pills, try simple measures such as walking before bed, refusing to watch late television, late dinner, or drinking tea. If they are overweight, many try to use special diets and note with disappointment that the effect is short-lived. Everything returns to normal. Patients with arterial hypertension should limit their intake of table salt to 5 g per day (half a teaspoon). Just like with atherosclerosis, you should not overeat or gorge yourself at night. You should exclude fatty meats and rich soups, canned food, and sharply limit high-calorie easily digestible foods (butter, smoked meats, baked goods, chocolate, candies). The easiest way to calculate normal weight is to subtract one hundred from your height in centimeters. Patients with arterial hypertension require constant use of antihypertensive drugs under control of blood pressure levels. With high arterial hypertension, one should not necessarily strive to lower blood pressure to “normal”; this can lead to a deterioration in the blood supply to vital organs, primarily the brain and heart. It is enough to reduce blood pressure by 10-15% of the initial level. For atherosclerosis, according to the recommendations of experts from the World Health Organization, if for 6 months the level of total cholesterol in the blood remains high (240 mg/dL or higher) with strict adherence to the diet, hypocholesterolemic drugs are prescribed, which are taken for a long time. Adequate treatment for diabetes and heart disease is necessary. For vascular diseases of the brain, vasodilators are prescribed that improve metabolism in the brain, affect the blood coagulation system, sedatives, vitamins, etc. The use of Cavinton, which has a complex effect, is important. It has a beneficial effect on cerebral circulation and metabolism in the brain, as well as blood clotting. Cavinton primarily increases blood supply to those areas of the brain where it is insufficient, and not at the expense of “robbing” neighboring vascular beds. These valuable properties of the drug ensure its effectiveness in memory disorders of vascular origin; As many years of practice have shown, the drug gives good results. For memory impairment, treatment is also carried out with nootropic drugs: Cerebrolysin, tanakan, piracetam, etc. The main treating physician for patients with vascular diseases of the brain is a neurologist. Of course, other specialists, including psychologists, also provide advisory assistance if necessary. Memory training is carried out taking into account the patient’s personality, intelligence, memory impairment and desire to be active. A doctor or a specially trained relative (conditionally a “trainer”) conducts classes daily for 45 minutes with one 5-minute break (necessarily in a separate, quiet room). A course of memory training sessions is combined with medications and other types of treatment and lasts an average of two months.
In conclusion, we present several options for memory training. 1st task. The coach takes in his hand several multi-colored, bright objects: a key, a button, a fountain pen, a ring with a stone, etc. and shows them to patients on the palm of his hand, and then, removing his hand, asks them to name and describe the objects. The entries are compared and discussed collectively. Periodically change objects and increase their number (from 4 to 10).
2nd task. The coach places 7 bright and large objects on the table and covers them with a scarf. Then, taking off the scarf for a short time, he shows them to the patients, after which he covers them with the scarf again and asks them to describe them. The notes are compared and discussed collectively. The number of items can be increased to 10.
3rd task. The trainer asks each patient to describe on paper a verbal portrait of the attending physician (eyes, nose, chin).
4th task. The trainer asks the patient to describe the home environment (pieces of furniture).
5th task. The trainer reads aloud, stanza by stanza, a poem unfamiliar to the patient, but quite simple, then asks to repeat: on the 1st day - the first stanza/, on the 2nd day - the first stanza/ and the beginning of the second stanza, on the 3rd day - the 1st , 2nd stanza and the beginning of the 3rd stanza, etc.
6th task. The trainer shows the patients a bright and large object for a short time, and then, removing it, asks them to describe or sketch it from memory.
7th task. An imaginary walk along the main street of the city. Each patient should, if possible, talk about places of interest and describe the appearance of individual houses.
8th task. An imaginary store. Each patient is given the task of “buying” ingredients to prepare lunch. The menu changes periodically. In the future, it is proposed to transfer classes to real life circumstances.
9th task (final). The patient writes down the events of the past day in a diary in the evening. Of course, improving memory depends not only on the attending physicians and psychologists, but also on the patient himself. It is necessary to overcome laziness, apathy and skepticism, tune in to long-term studies, then the result will become obvious.
© Magazine “Nerves”, 2010, No. 2-3
