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MIT Research Digest January 2000 The Changing Brain An MIT researcher using the latest available technology has found evidence that rats' brains undergo dramatic changes after the animals learn how to find a reward in a maze. As the rats learned a specific sequence of movements that lead to a reward, researchers could actually see the striking changes that occurred in the response pattern of neurons in the brain structure known as the striatum. The study by professor Ann Graybiel of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Studies and collegues appeared in the November 26 Science. Their results suppport the idea that during habit learning, the brain codes whole sequences of behaviours as units or chunks which can be triggered by specific contexts. Graybiel studies the brain circuits that support habitual actions, hoping to learn how a healthy brain functions and what can go wrong with these circuits in disorders such as Tourette's Syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and even addiction to coccaine. This work is supported by the Grayce B. Kerr Fund, the Poitras Charitable Foundation, the Walter A. Rosenblith Professorship of NeuroScience, the NIH, the Tourette Syndrome Association, the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and SRI International. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/rd/2000/jan.html#5 http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/1999/resolutions.html Joan U (who thinks that we should name the new millenium "two 'aught 'aught 'aught" ...sound musical?)