New study challenges established beliefs on how the brain learns

Decades-old understanding about how the brain learns has been called into question by new research from Bar-Ilan University.

Since Donald Hebb's work in 1949, it has been believed that learning occurs in the brain by modifying the strength of the synapses, whereas neurons function as the computational elements in the brain.

However, a new study suggests that learning is actually done by several dendrites, similar to the slow learning mechanism currently attributed to the synapses.

Professor Ido Kanter of the Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University explained: “The newly discovered process of learning in the dendrites occurs at a much faster rate than in the old scenario suggesting that learning occurs solely in the synapses.

“In this new dendritic learning process, there are a few adaptive parameters per neuron, in comparison to thousands of tiny and sensitive ones in the synaptic learning scenario.”

Another key finding of the study is that weak synapses, previously assumed to be insignificant even though they comprise the majority of our brain, play an important role in the dynamics of the human brain.

They induce oscillations of the learning parameters rather than pushing them to unrealistic fixed extremes, as suggested in the current synaptic learning scenario.

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