They begin with such simple objects as animals, houses, chairs, pencils and tools. The findings reveal a brain organized around the processes of learning, not the objects themselves, and by the way in which these objects are used. For example, the studies found that verbs are stored in areas of the brain just in front of regions involved in the perception of motion. These findings also support clinical observations made by British researchers Elizabeth Warrington and Rosaleen McCarthy, who noticed a highly selective loss in the ability to name or retrieve objects in some brain-damaged patients. Depending on where the injury occurred in the brain, some patients lost the ability to name small inanimate objects, such as mops, forks and chairs, but retained the ability to recall living things and large objects, such as kittens, autos and clouds.
Color goes with color, form goes with form, motor information with motor information.
But scientists are searching even deeper, seeking to unravel how individual brain cells store and share information. Last month, researchers at the University of Geneva in Switzerland announced that they had captured what appears to be the first electron micrograph image of the cellular changes involved in long-term memory. Reporting in the journal Nature, the team showed how the connections between two nerve cells in a rat's brain change significantly when long-term memory is established. In an alteration that is believed to occur across nearly all species from rat to human, the team found significant changes in the spiny dendrites that form at gaps between nerve cells called synapses. Scientists believe that this change allows for a host of associations to be made linking a particular memory with experiences, thoughts, emotions, sights, sounds and smells.