Feature



Sara Goudarzi

We learn better when the material meshes with what we already know, according to a new study of rats that researchers say could help explain human learning.

Scientists trained rats to associate six feeding areas with six different flavors of rat food. After six weeks of training in a constant set of smell-location pairs, the trained animals learned new flavor-place associations in a single testa surprisingly short period of time, the researchers say.

“You could be very literal and liken it to you learning where the Indian restaurant is, where the Thai restaurant is, where the curry house is and so on,” said study team member Richard Morris at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. “Then when a new restaurant opens it's easy to slot it into your framework.”

The rats were also able to remember the new associations for at least two weeks, the researchers reported in the April 6 issue of the journal Science.

These new associations were initially learned with the help of a region of the brain called the hippocampus. But when the researchers removed this organ within 48 hours, the associations had already become stable memories in the neocortexthe outermost layer of brain cells in mammals involved in higher cognitive functions.

“The neocortex was able to incorporate new information rapidly,” wrote Larry Squire of the Virginia Medical Center in a related Science article. He was not involved in the study. Past studies have concluded that animals normally take at least a month to learn such new information.

The new findings could aid researchers in designing treatments for people with memory problems.

“I think we need to think about this aspect and thinking about relating information to what people already know as a behavioral thing, as a cognitive thing, and not just assume that it's all to do with pharmacology,” Morris told LiveScience. “And even if it is, then we [have] to think about neocortical neurons and synapses, and not just hippocampal ones.”

-- Space . com

Students of Stamford on Field Study

Tanvir Hossain

The students of the Department of Environmental Science of Stamford University Bangladesh went to a study tour to Lalmai Hills at Comilla in mid-March. This was part of the regular academic program through which students acquire firsthand experience on broad environmental issues of a specific area. This time around, the emphasis was on the physical environment.

We had the opportunity to understand the formation of hill areas by observing anticlines and synclines as well as stratification of sedimentary deposits dating back to about 0.7 million years, in the hill formations along the Comilla-Brahmanbaria highway. There were extensive deposits of fossilized woods in some areas, indicating that the area underwent an extensive physical disturbance on a catastrophic scale sometime in the past. We collected samples of these woods and also different types of conglomerates embedded within the soil strata made of clay, shale and sand. The soil is typically oxidized; giving a reddish appearance that is very different from the geomorphology of the surrounding areas. At present, the whole area is undergoing environmental changes due to human intervention. Such interferences started with the building of a cantonment during the early 1940s (British Period) and an airport just before World War II. At present, increasing population and expansion of farming activities as well as human settlement have drastically changed the original physical environment of Lalmai and adjoining areas.

The study was guided by three teachers of the Department: Professor K. Maudood Elahi, Dr. Arif Mohiuddin Sikder and Ms. Indrani Das. They helped us in many ways to enrich our knowledge and provided a unique opportunity to make us understand the link between theoretical knowledge and practical experience.

30th Batch, Dept. of Environmental Science
Stamford University Bangladesh.