How curiosity changes the brain to enhance learning

The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to learn information about that topic. New research publishing online October 2 in the Cell Press journal Neuron provides insights into what happens in our brains when curiosity is piqued. The findings could help scientists find ways to enhance overall learning and memory in both healthy individuals and those with neurological conditions.

"Our findings potentially have far-reaching implications for the public because they reveal insights into how a form of intrinsic motivation—curiosity—affects memory. These findings suggest ways to enhance learning in the classroom and other settings," says lead author Dr. Matthias Gruber, of University of California at Davis.

For the study, participants rated their curiosity to learn the answers to a series of trivia questions. When they were later presented with a selected trivia question, there was a 14 second delay before the answer was provided, during which time the participants were shown a picture of a neutral, unrelated face. Afterwards, participants performed a surprise recognition memory test for the faces that were presented, followed by a memory test for the answers to the trivia questions. During certain parts of the study, participants had their brains scanned via functional magnetic resonance imaging.

The study revealed three major findings. First, as expected, when people were highly curious to find out the answer to a question, they were better at learning that information. More surprising, however, was that once their curiosity was aroused, they showed better learning of entirely unrelated information (face recognition) that they encountered but were not necessarily curious about. People were also better able to retain the information learned during a curious state across a 24-hour delay. “Curiosity may put the brain in a state that allows it to learn and retain any kind of information, like a vortex that sucks in what you are motivated to learn, and also everything around it,” explains Dr. Gruber.

Second, the investigators found that when curiosity is stimulated, there is increased activity in the brain circuit related to reward. “We showed that intrinsic motivation actually recruits the very same brain areas that are heavily involved in tangible, extrinsic motivation,” says Dr. Gruber. This reward circuit relies on dopamine, a chemical messenger that relays messages between neurons.

Third, the team discovered that when curiosity motivated learning, there was increased activity in the hippocampus, a brain region that is important for forming new memories, as well as increased interactions between the hippocampus and the reward circuit. “So curiosity recruits the reward system, and interactions between the reward system and the hippocampus seem to put the brain in a state in which you are more likely to learn and retain information, even if that information is not of particular interest or importance,” explains principal investigator Dr. Charan Ranganath, also of UC Davis.

The findings could have implications for medicine and beyond. For example, the brain circuits that rely on dopamine tend to decline in function as people get older, or sooner in people with neurological conditions. Understanding the relationship between motivation and memory could therefore stimulate new efforts to improve memory in the healthy elderly and to develop new approaches for treating patients with disorders that affect memory. And in the classroom or workplace, learning what might be considered boring material could be enhanced if teachers or managers are able to harness the power of students’ and workers’ curiosity about something they are naturally motivated to learn.

Division of labour in the fish brain

For a fish to swim forward, the nerve cells, or neurons, in its brain and spine have to control the swishing movements of its tail with very close coordination. However, the posture of the tail, which determines swimming direction somewhat like a rudder, also needs to be fine-tuned by the brain’s activity. Using the innovative method of optogenetics, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have now identified a group of only about 15 nerve cells which steer the movements of the tail fin. Movements of the human body are also controlled via nerve pathways in the same region of the brain, which may therefore use processing mechanisms similar to those in fish.

For a long time, neurobiologists have been trying to find out how neuronal networks control both animal and human behaviour. In this context, there is controversy as to whether the brain’s organisation is decentralised as opposed to modular. In decentralised organisation, the interaction of a large number of neurons produces a specific behaviour pattern. If this is the case, individual neurons cannot be assigned an exact function. On the other hand, if the brain has a modular structure, individual regions might possess certain competencies, each making a specific contribution to behaviour. These types of neuronal circuit modules could be combined in many ways and influence a broad range of different behavioural responses.

Switches in the fish brain?

Researchers in Herwig Baier’s Group at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology want to get to the bottom of the brain’s organisational structure with the aid of zebrafish larvae. A network known as the descending reticular formation is located in the brainstem of these animals. The neurons of that region are optimally suited for studying the organisation of the brain: the cells are in direct contact with motor neurons in the spinal cord of the fish and can thus directly influence tail movements. “The reticular formation is a like a ‘cockpit’ for the fish, and we asked ourselves whether there are individual ‘switches’ or ‘joysticks‘, which are used to control the movements of the tail”, is how Herwig Baier summarises this challenge.

In their search for these switches, the researchers concentrated on a small brain nucleus (nMLF) within the reticular formation. But how can the influence of individual nMLF neurons on tail movements be studied? It is only recently that such investigations even became a possibility. Using the new method of optogenetics, the activity of nerve cells can be influenced with light. Since a zebrafish larva – including its brain – is transparent, scientists can very accurately “switch on” small sets of genetically modified cells by exposing the larva to blue light. Consequently, tail movements that are induced in this way can be attributed to identified neurons.

Neurons and tillers

The first series of tests showed that the cells of the nMLF region seem to be involved in a variety of movements – from forward propulsion to rotational motion. A second experimental series using optogenetic stimulation, however, suggested that the cells control the deflection of the tail in particular. Are the nMLF cells thus part of a multifunctional centre or are they truly specialised to perform certain functions? To resolve this question, the neurobiologists performed another set of trials in which they very specifically removed small sets of nMLF cells from the circuit. “This experiment gave us our breakthrough”, recalls Tod Thiele, lead author of the now published study.

The results show that, while nMLF cells are active in many aspects of swimming, a subset of these neurons contribute to only one part of the movement: they determine swimming direction through the posture of the tail. Thus, this population of neurons in the nMLF region are more akin to a specialised module within a decentralised control system of the swimming apparatus. Herwig Baier explains it like this: “We can compare the whole setup with the propulsion of a motorboat”. The boat’s engine, which drives the propeller, determines the thrust, whereas the tiller steers the boat. It seems that the tasks in the brain are divided up in a very similar way.

Some time ago, Herwig Baier’s team discovered a small region in the hindbrain, which acts like an engine and propels the fish forwards. “With the nMLF cells, we have now also found the tiller in the fish brain”, says Herwig Baier. In the human brain, movements are also controlled by a multitude of nuclei in the reticular formation. The study therefore suggests that the allocation of tasks in our brain could be similar to that of the zebrafish.

Is Athleticism Linked to Brain Size?

To find out, researchers at the University of California, Riverside performed laboratory experiments on house mice and found that mice that have been bred for dozens of generations to be more exercise-loving have larger midbrains than those that have not been selectively bred this way.

Theodore Garland’s lab measured the brain mass of these uniquely athletic house mice, bred for high voluntary wheel-running, and analyzed their high-resolution brain images. The researchers found that the volume of the midbrain — a small region of the brain that relays information for the visual, auditory, and motor systems — in the bred-for-athleticism mice was nearly 13 percent larger than the midbrain volume in the control or “regular” mice.

“To our knowledge, this is the first example in which selection for a particular mammalian behavior — high voluntary wheel running in house mice in our set of experiments — has been shown to result in a change in size of a specific brain region,” said Garland, a professor of biology and the principal investigator of the research project.

Study results appeared online Jan. 16 in The Journal of Experimental Biology