In situations of
conflict, people have to decide fast what to do. The hippocampus
seems to be
involved in this process. © RUB, Foto: Marquard
Hippocampus is involved in quick and successful decisions
The brain could learn useful lessons from resolved conflicts
(August 20, 2015) The
hippocampus in the brain's temporal lobe is responsible for more than just
long-term memory. Researchers have for the first time demonstrated that it is
also involved in quick and successful conflict resolution. The team headed by
Prof Dr Nikolai Axmacher from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), together with
colleagues from the University Hospital of Bonn as well as in Aachen and
Birmingham, reported in the journal "Current Biology".
The hippocampus is
particularly active when a person solves conflicts quickly
and successfully. ©
RUB, Grafik: Bierstedt
Decision conflicts
occur often in everyday life
In their everyday life, people are constantly confronted
with decision conflicts, especially if they need to suppress an action that
would have made sense under normal circumstances. For example: when the
pedestrian lights go green, a pedestrian would normally start walking. If,
however, a car comes speeding along at the same time, the pedestrian should
stay where he is. In their experiment, researchers opted for a less threatening
situation. Test participants heard the words "high" or "low”
spoken in a high or low tone, and they had to state – regardless of the meaning
of the word – at what pitch the speaker said them. If the pitch doesn't
correspond with the meaning of the word, a conflict is generated: the
participants would answer more slowly and make more mistakes.
Results confirmed
with two measurement methods
The team demonstrated with two different measurement methods
that the hippocampus is active in such conflicting situations; this applies
particularly when a person solves the conflicts quickly and successfully.
Nikolai Axmacher from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and his colleagues
analysed the brain activity in healthy participants with functional magnetic
resonance imaging. They gained the same results in epilepsy patients who had
EEG electrodes implanted in the hippocampus for the purpose of surgery
planning; this is how the researchers could measure the activity in that brain
region directly.
Memory system could
learn from resolved conflicts
Because the hippocampus is essential for memory, the
researchers speculate about its role in conflict resolution: "Our data
show first of all a completely new function of the Hippocampus – processing of
activity conflicts," says Carina Oehrn from the Department of Epileptology
at the University Hospital of Bonn. "However, in order to answer the
question how that function interacts with memory processes, we will have to
carry out additional tests." "Perhaps the memory system becomes
particularly active if a conflict has been successfully resolved,"
speculates Nikolai Axmacher. "Permanently unsolved conflicts can't be used
for learning helpful lessons for the future. According to our model, the brain
works like a filter. It responds strongly to resolved conflicts, but not to
unsolved conflicts or standard situations. However, we have to verify this
hypothesis in additional studies."