Chen Shen
George Washington University
USA
Title: On the interpretation of the recent Nobel Prize discovery of the
Biography
Biography: Chen Shen
Abstract
On the interpretation of the recent Nobel Prize discovery of the "internal GPS" in the brain and its possible implications for medical treatment John O’Keefe with May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser have discovered a surprising phenomenon of the internal memory map in mice brains. It has been observed that some neurons fire when the tested animal moves over a particular area. In this work, we provide an interpretation of this effect based on a model of the brain suggested by S. Berkovich. For this purpose, we have arranged computer simulations of random walks of an artificial “mouse” with rate of recording determined by the time “mouse” spends in a given position. Then, some cutoff threshold was chosen, and according to the considered brain model the signal can be detected only above a certain threshold. The simulation outcomes resemble the obtained experimental results. The correctness of our concept can be verified by studying memory maps from various special forced deterministic movements of a real mouse. As long as the discovered phenomenon is real, it can provide a new approach to medical treatment. Apparently, macromolecule interactions are essentially determined by information signaling rather than merely by direct physical contact. So, medical drugs can be applied from outside using internal memory map of a pathological area of the organism. Most remarkably, the possibility of localized outside applications of drugs may reduce undesirable side effects, especially some detrimental consequences of chemotherapy in cancer.
