The hippocampus represents an important brain structure
for learning. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in
Munich discovered how it filters electrical neuronal signals through an
input and output control, thus regulating learning and memory processes.
Accordingly, effective signal transmission needs so-called
theta-frequency impulses of the cerebral cortex. With a frequency of
three to eight hertz, these impulses generate waves of electrical
activity that propagate through the hippocampus. Impulses of a different
frequency evoke no transmission, or only a much weaker one.
Moreover,
signal transmission in other areas of the brain through long-term
potentiation (LTP), which is essential for learning, occurs only when
the activity waves take place for a certain while. The scientists even
have an explanation for why we are mentally more productive after
drinking a cup of coffee or in an acute stress situation: in their
experiments, caffeine and the stress hormone corticosterone boosted the
activity flow.
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