A new study may shed light on how our brains reason

Recent research may have discovered how our brains make inferences, which are the result of logical thinking and new ideas that come from prior knowledge. Inferences are the backbone of how we form connections—whether it’s how we interpret another’s feelings or determine what the sky might be saying about the weather that’s to come, it all comes down to the hippocampus, a region of the brain that is responsible for memory, learning, and emotion. And now, we’ve learned, inferences.

Scientists from Mount Sinai Medical Center studied 17 patients with epilepsy with the intent of uncovering the source of their frequent seizures. While they took electrical recordings of more than 3,000 neurons, they asked the research subjects to perform a simple task based on inferential reasoning: participants had to find the associations between everyday objects, including fruits and cars, and link them to pressing one of two buttons. As the subjects learned how to associate each image with one of the buttons, the scientists flipped the association, forcing the subjects to re-learn which button correlated to each type of image. Quickly, the subjects learned the new cues, mirroring real-life situations in which we are forced to adapt quickly to external changes.

After collecting their measurements, the researchers geometrically mapped out subjects’ brain activity, focusing on the hippocampus. This was where they made their discovery: there were stark differences between how these three-dimensional models looked when subjects’ inferences were successful versus when they were unsuccessful. The geometric structures became more ordered and formed beautiful lattices. This was true in individuals who learned to make new inferences both through trial-and-error as well as those who inferred simply by listening to and understanding their verbal cues. Ultimately, we hope that this discovery might provide further insight into how our brain forms memories and processes external stimuli, potentially impacting how we understand neurodegenerative diseases.

Author: Arjun Puri

References: Neuroscience News. (2024). How the Brain Learns to Make Inferences. Retrieved from https://neurosciencenews.com/learning-inferences-hippocampus-27546/

The Hippocampus: Storing and Processing Memories. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/brain/hippocampus-what-to-know?scrlybrkr=f9da6fa3