Flexible brain circuits can switch between different tasks

According to MIT News, neuroscientists have discovered something elegant about how the brain manages its many tasks: it reuses the same neural circuits for different purposes. In a study of mice, researchers found that specific neurons in the prefrontal cortex could switch between storing a sensory memory or an action plan, depending on what the mouse needed in the moment. The finding, published in Nature Neuroscience, supports a decades-old theory that the brain operates like cognitive Legos—flexible building blocks that mix and match to generate varied behavior. It's a neat explanation for how a finite number of neurons can handle an unlimited range of functions.

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