生物谷報道：當(dāng)你與久未謀面的朋友重逢時會給你帶來意外的驚喜,，你可以稱之為“雪崩”,。最新研究認(rèn)為，大腦雪崩可有助于人的記憶,。2004年,，美國衛(wèi)生研究院的研究人員將老鼠的大腦組織在微電極下觀察發(fā)現(xiàn)，腦細(xì)胞會在這種稱為“神經(jīng)元雪崩”的方式下相互激活,。
現(xiàn)今新的研究理論認(rèn)為,，大腦雪崩可能是最佳的信息存儲。如果這一結(jié)論成立的話,，一些影響神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的化學(xué)物質(zhì)在一定的時候會使人類的記憶問題得到改善,。
生物物理學(xué)家、現(xiàn)任印地安那大學(xué)生物復(fù)雜性學(xué)會教授John Beggs先生說：“當(dāng)大多數(shù)人想起雪崩時,，他們會對某些事物無限想像,。但雪崩有大有小，并且較小的就是人們最常見的,，這正是我們在腦細(xì)胞中發(fā)現(xiàn)的,。”
Beggs說，當(dāng)雪崩從山上掉下來到達(dá)半山腰時,，似乎是為人力不可控的,，但實際上，它是被特定的因素所控,。這些同樣的因素也同樣控制著表面上似乎不相關(guān)的事件（如森林大火和地震）,，還有一些大腦的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的活動。所以這些現(xiàn)象,，從生物細(xì)胞到國家經(jīng)濟(jì),，都是復(fù)雜性科學(xué)研究的范疇。
生物復(fù)雜性是一個涉及物理、化學(xué),、計算機(jī)科學(xué),、數(shù)學(xué)以及生命科學(xué)的交叉性學(xué)科。這項研究由國家科學(xué)基金會（NSF）資助（http://www.bioon.com/）,。
Brain 'avalanches' may help store memories
Meeting a friend you haven't seen in years brings on a sudden surge of pleasant memories. You might even call it an avalanche. Recent studies suggest that avalanches in your brain could actually help you to store memories. Last year, scientists at the National Institutes of Health placed slices of rat brain tissue on a microelectrode array and found that the brain cells activated each other in cascades called "neuronal avalanches."
New computer models now suggest that these brain avalanches may be optimal for information storage. If so, certain neurochemical treatments might someday improve life for people with memory problems. A report of this work will be published Feb. 4 in the journal Physical Review Letters.
"When most people think of an avalanche, they imagine something huge," said biophysicist John Beggs, now a professor in the Biocomplexity Institute at Indiana University Bloomington, who helped perform the NIH experiments. "But avalanches come in all sizes, and the smaller ones are most common. That's just what we found in the brain cells."
An avalanche roaring down a mountainside may seem to be wildly out of control, but actually it is governed by certain equations. These same equations also govern such seemingly unrelated events as forest fires and earthquakes -- as well as some neural activity in the brain, Beggs said. All are examples of phenomena that can be studied with the new science of complexity, which deals with all kinds of complex systems ranging from living cells to national economies.
Biocomplexity is a cross-disciplinary field involving physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and the life sciences. A description of the IU Biocomplexity Institute, headquartered in IU Bloomington's Department of Physics, is available at http://www.indiana.edu/~iufcs/issue7/solving.shtml.
To find out the possible benefits of brain avalanches, Beggs and IU senior Clay Haldeman simulated the spreading activity of brain cells in a computer model. When the activity was tuned to mimic the avalanches seen in brain tissue, a large number of stable activity patterns appeared. Stable activity patterns are thought to be important for memory, since they have been recorded in the brains of monkeys and rats after they perform memory tasks, Beggs said.
"The fact that the most stable activity patterns appeared when the network of brain cells was also producing avalanches hints that the brain may actually use avalanches to store information," Beggs said.
"This work might ultimately help human memory," he explained. "If our computer simulations apply to networks of human brain cells, then it would be desirable to have your brain in a state where it naturally produces avalanches. In the laboratory, we can apply neurochemicals to defective networks of rat brain cells, gently easing them into a state where avalanches occur. These chemicals suggest treatments that might someday improve information storage in people with memory problems."
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation.
From Indiana University（http://www.bioon.com/）
