Giving Compass' Take:

• Researchers have successfully used a laser-assisted imaging tool to “see” what happens in brain cells of mice learning to reach out and grab a pellet of food.

• How can this new research help support our educational system and how we learn? 

• This initiative uses science of early learning to spark brain-building moments. 

They say their experiments add to evidence that such motor-based learning can occur in multiple areas of the brain, even ones not typically associated with motor control.

“Scientists should be looking at the entire brain to understand specific types of learning,” says Richard Huganir, professor and director of the neuroscience department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“Different parts of the brain contribute to learning in different ways, and studying brain cell receptors can help us decipher how this works.”

The work may ultimately inform efforts to develop treatments for learning-based and neurocognitive disorders, researchers say.

In a report on the work, Huganir and his research team say they focused on AMPA-type glutamate receptors, or AMPARs, key molecules that help send messages between brain cells called neurons. AMPARs function like antennas that form along the surface of a particular spot on neurons called a synapse, where it receives molecular signals from other neurons.

To monitor and measure AMPAR levels in mouse brains, scientists previously had to dissect the organ before and after a learning experiment and compare differences. Now, scientists have ways to directly view the brain during learning, recording thousands of synapses at a time.

Read the full article about learning and the brain by Rachel Butch at Futurity.