WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — An egg shaped structure in the middle of the brain has been identified as a controller that allows mice — and possibly humans — to remember some thoughts while forgetting others, according to a press release by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
"If the brain works like an orchestra, our results suggest the thalamus may be its conductor," New York University’s Langone Medical Center scientist Michael Halassa stated in the release on Wednesday.
In the future, the thalamus might even become a target for interventions to reduce cognitive deficits in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, the release explained.
The little understood thalamus had previously been thought of as a relay point for neurons that crisscross the brain, the release noted.
But the NIH-funded research indicates that the thalamus also turns out to play a pivotal role in thinking circuity, allowing the brain to sort and hold some thoughts while allowing other thoughts to fade, according to the release.
