Nature: The new environment restarts neural circuits and promotes learning.

In February 2021, scientist Joshua A.
Gordon of the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States and others published an interesting study in Nature, showing that novel environments can reset hippocampal–prefrontal neural circuits and promote learning: Reset of hippocampal– prefrontal circuitry facilitates learning.

Research Summary The ability to quickly adapt to new (Novel) situations is critical to survival, and this flexibility is impaired in many neuropsychiatric disorders.

Therefore, understanding whether novelty can restart brain circuits and promote cognitive flexibility has important translational medicine significance.

Exposure to novelty recruits the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and may use the hippocampus-prefrontal circuit to promote subsequent learning-related plasticity.

The authors of this study novelly reset the neural circuit connecting the ventral hippocampus (vHPC) and mPFC, and promoted the ability to overcome established strategies.

Exposing the mouse to a novel environment disrupted the previously coded strategy.
It reorganized vHPC activity into local (4-12Hz) oscillations and weakened the existing vHPC-mPFC connectivity.

As the mice subsequently adapted to a new task, vHPC neurons developed new task-related activities, vHPC-mPFC connectivity increased, and mPFC neurons updated to encode new rules.

However, in the absence of novel stimuli, the mice adhere to their established strategies.

Blocking dopamine D1 receptors (D1Rs) or inhibiting novelty marker cells expressing D1Rs in vHPC prevents these novel behavioral and physiological effects.

In addition, the activation of D1Rs also mimics the effect of novelty.

These results indicate that novel stimuli promote adaptive learning through the D1R-mediated vHPC-mPFC circuit, so that it is possible to learn the plasticity of related circuits for subsequent research.

Biology 360: Not afraid of the new environment, strive to adapt to and meet new challenges, learn new skills, overcome new difficulties, and continue to grow.

References Alan J.
Park et al, Reset of hippocampal–prefrontal circuitry facilitates learning, Nature volume 591, pages615–619 (2021) Description: The copyright belongs to the original author of the article, and Bio360 shares and adds its own opinions.