Dick Burger (burger at sphinx.ece.wisc.edu) wrote:
: Interesting article in the NY Times Science section this week. Apparently
: chicadee birds grow additional cells in the hippocampus during the fall when
: they are hiding food for winter storage, the theory being that they need
: additional memory to remember the numerous places where they stash the
: goodies.
: Since new neurons are created rather than just making more synapsis, the
: study suggests that the neuron rather than the synapse might be the basic
: unit of memory.
: DB
I disagree for many reasons which I'd be happy to address with you via
e-mail, but the new neurons themselves represent many new synapse combina-
tions, no? And I think that's the key point that you're missing.
--
Jim Olds;internet: olds at nih.gov
non-government e-mail: olds at mbl.edu
Laboratory of Adaptive Systems, NINDS, NIH
Room B316A Building 36, 36 Convent Dr. MSC 4007, Bethesda MD. 20892-4007
Telephone: +1 301 402 6079 FAX:+1 301 402-0117
PGP Public key available by e-mail
