What Froot Loops Tell Us About the Dialogue in Our Brains

What Froot Loops Tell Us About the Dialogue in Our Brains
Wikimedia_Commons
Updated:

You’ve got a plan to pick up groceries for dinner on the way home. Right now, though, you’re in your office, coffee in hand. A coworker drops by asking what materials are needed for an upcoming meeting.

Your answer, most likely, isn’t “carrots.” That’s because the human brain contains circuitry that retrieves memories appropriate for the current situation.

New work from the lab of Howard Eichenbaum, a professor and director of Boston University’s Center for Memory and Brain, suggests this circuitry spans long distances in the brain and supports a complex dialog between two brain structures.

Understanding this system has implications for almost any disorder that affects memory.