A new study challenges the common belief that human brain's functions such as learning, memory, and perception occur in the central part of neurons called soma. In a brain structure, neurons' three-like feature has soma in the middle and branches called dendrites. Soma will spike whenever there is data that needs processing and dendrites will communicate with each other - but not until the University of California, Los Angeles discovered the opposite.
UCLA team tested the theory of "soma to dendrites" and found a contradicting result. Dendrites are electrically active and generate 10 times more spikes that somas. Scientists are now on to new finding that dendrites' role is to form and store memories.
According to Mayank Mehta, senior author of the study, dendrites are not passive conduits. They themselves are moving around freely and generate spikes or brain activity. This also shows that 90 percent of the brain is being utilized since dendrites comprise 90 percent of the brain tissue. Meaning, the human brain has almost 10 times more computational capability than previously thought.
The original belief is that dendrites are sending currents from cell's synapse. Somas will, in turn, generate short electrical bursts known as "somatic spikes," paving the old theory that soma is a central player in brain activity. UCLA practically debunked this theory and placed dendrites at the heart of neutral learning.
Apart from understanding how the human brain works, Mehta believes that this new discovery could lead to a development of computers that functions more like humans, Daily Mail reported. Modern computers are processing digital data although quantum computers are analog. Comparably, dendrites are a hybrid type that can process both.
The common belief about digital brain process stood for 60 years. Mehta said that this generally-accepted belief has to change soon and acknowledge that dendrites don't act as a purely digital conduit. The UCLA research showed that both digital and analog all-or-none spikes can occur on dendrites.
