The functioning of neurons still contains many mysteries.Image: Shutterstock
Scientists have just made a startling discovery about how our brains work.
14.01.2026, 20:5914.01.2026, 20:59
What did you enjoy eating most when you were a child? What did your pet look like? Very often, very old memories come back to us in a fraction of a second.
For decades, neuroscientists have sought to understand how the human brain manages to store information so efficiently. A study carried out by the University Hospital of Bonn, in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), today sheds new light.
There are two ways to record memories
According to researchers, the medial temporal lobe – the region of the brain linked to memory – uses two different groups of neurons to store information:
- Content neurons store what is shown, for example an object or a person.
- Context neurons only memorize the circumstances.
For example, a child happily eats candy for dessert. The brain then records two elements separately: the content – what was eaten – and the context – the fact that it was dessert. In other words, memories are not stored rigidly, but assembled dynamically. This also explains why certain details sometimes escape us.
The brain distributes its resources
But why does the brain work like this? Researchers put forward a simple explanation: to save energy. If different groups of neurons each store only part of the information, then no cell needs to remember everything at once and the brain can work more efficiently. This separation also allows content to be reused in different situations, without having to record everything again.
Sixteen patients suffering from severe epilepsy participated in the study. Electrodes were implanted in their medial temporal lobe, allowing researchers to observe more than 3,000 neurons while the participants completed simple tasks on a laptop.
They always saw the same images – people or objects – but had to answer new questions each time, and therefore in different contexts: “Is the image bigger?” or “Will this fit in a shoebox?”. Result: some nerve cells reacted to the image, others only to the task.
Published in the scientific journal Naturethis study is a first. Until now, much of the knowledge about memory and neurons has come from experiments on animals. A better understanding of how the brain works could help to better study diseases such as Alzheimer’s or the consequences of a stroke. (cst)
Translated from German by Joel Espi
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