Originally published July 5 2005
Celebrity-specific recognition neurons suggest some neurons are more specialized than previously thought
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A research team led by neuroscientists at UCLA and Caltech has located a neuron that fires based upon a single perception: In the case of one patient, recognition of actress Jennifer Aniston.
Camera-toting paparazzi have no trouble spotting Jennifer Aniston or Brad Pitt -- even behind dark sunglasses or a new hairstyle.
Now scientists have found that part of this instant recognition may involve individual brain cells.
This is sometimes mockingly referred to as the "grandmother cell" theory because -- taken to its extreme -- it says that all the concepts and perceptions regarding your dear old grandma can be embodied in one neuron.
In the current issue of the journal Nature, a research team led by neuroscientists at UCLA and Caltech has rather haphazardly located a neuron that "looks for all the world like a 'Jennifer Aniston' cell," writes Charles Connor of Johns Hopkins University.
When the person was shown 87 images of various celebrities, well-known buildings, animals and objects, the neuron only fired for seven separate snapshots of the Friends actress.
Not only did pictures of the actress elicit a response but so did other representations: a drawn caricature, images of Berry in her "Catwoman" costume, and even the spelling of her name.
In a third subject, images of the Sydney Opera House, as well as the words "Sydney Opera," caused a group of neurons to fire.
In separate sessions, the patients were exposed to a random assortment of about 100 images, while the electrodes monitored the activity of around 50 neurons in the medial temporal lobe, a small region of the brain associated with memory.
These "hits" were later explored in a follow-up session, in which pictures and words related to the initial stimulus were shown to the patient.
The researchers found that the neurons were selective (not firing for related subject matter) and invariant (firing for entirely different representations of the same person or thing).
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