The 97 New Areas Discovered In The Brain

Although it is difficult to believe , most scientists have worked in recent years using a map of the brain dating from the last century as a reference. This was what bothered a team at the University of Washington. That is why they took on the task of making a new mapping. It was worth it, because in addition to specifying the graphs of this organ, they also discovered 97 new areas in the cerebral cortex.

What does this mean? The findings of this study allow a much better understanding of the brain. Actually so far we know little about this organ. With the new mapping it has been possible to specify how it works. In the near future this will help, for example, to prevent and treat mental illness more effectively. It will also help improve learning, memory and perhaps prevent the appearance of terrible diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Scientists have indicated that this is only an initial step . They noted that there may be many other areas of the brain to be functionally identified and analyzed. However, everything that has been achieved means a great advance. In the short term, its main application will be to make brain surgeries much more precise.

An experiment to examine the brain

To define the new map of the brain, the researchers took as a basis a group of 210 people. All of them were part of another research program. Thus, there were brain scans of each of the participants.

The brains of this group of people were subjected to an experiment. They were asked to perform a certain activity, such as reading a story , listening to music, or resting. Meanwhile, everything was monitored with a scanner to observe brain activity.

Later the same was done with another group of 210 adults who had no relationship with the researchers. The same procedure was applied to contrast the results with those of the first group. And this is how it was possible to establish that there were areas of the brain that had not been previously reviewed.

The most interesting thing about the research is not the discovery of new brain areas per se. What is relevant is that all the observations represent a breakthrough in understanding the human brain. It was detected that when we do certain activities, several brain areas come into play at the same time. And that there are areas that do not seem to have a specific task, but rather help coordinate the functions of the others.

The novel findings in the brain

Scientists made several findings about the functioning of the brain that promise to have fascinating developments. It was observed that this organ does not work like a computer. Unlike those gadgets, the brain does not receive any “program” or any “operating system” to function. It has its own laws, which are not fully known.

Among the most interesting discoveries are the following:

• There is an area that they called “55 b”. This area lights up when a person is listening to or reading stories. Also when you know an anecdote or the personal experience that a friend tells. For researchers, it would be proof that stories have enormous power in communication.

• An area related to movement was also detected. The interesting thing about it is how it works. Apparently, when we move in space, our brain makes a kind of mental map. This has the purpose of assessing whether the next step is appropriate or not. It is a kind of radar to advance in physical spaces.
• Also in relation to movement, an area was discovered that evaluates the movements of those around us. Everything seems to indicate that their role is to define whether the way others move is threatening or not.
• Scientists discovered that the memory zone works in connection with the music appreciation zone. In other words, when the music zone is illuminated, memories are more easily fixed.

The researchers noted that this first mapping is just the initial chapter of new findings. They are convinced that there are more areas in the brain, unidentified. They also believe that each area is subdivided to carry out very specific functions. They defined the brain as a “super computer” that we are just beginning to penetrate.