How the Brain Handles New Information: A Look at the Subcortex

The brain's ability to update information is a complex process. Recent studies have focused on the role of dopamine and the striatum in this process. Researchers used a special type of MRI, called 7 Tesla fMRI, to scan the brain while people performed a memory task. They found that when new information is added to memory, areas like the prefrontal cortex and the frontoparietal network are highly active. This challenges the idea that the striatum is the main controller of this process. However, the study did find that the subcortical regions, including the basal ganglia, are involved in updating memory. This happens when the brain is in a "ready-to-update" mode. The basal ganglia seem to be more involved in general updating processes rather than just controlling the memory gate. When new information is substituted into memory, areas like the midbrain, striatum, thalamus, and prefrontal cortex show activity. This suggests that the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop, driven by dopamine, plays a crucial role. The findings shift the focus from the initial opening of the memory gate to the substitution of new information as a key part of the updating process. This gives us a better understanding of how the brain handles new information and the role of subcortical regions in this process.