Post #3481279

"The first experiment exposed patients to a series of repeating tones with occasional unexpected sounds mixed in. The researchers found that neurons in the hippocampus consistently detected these unusual tones. Even more interesting, the brain became better at recognizing them over time, suggesting that learning or neural plasticity was still taking place during anesthesia. The researchers then increased the complexity of the experiment by playing short stories while continuing to record brain activity. The hippocampus showed clear evidence of processing language in real time. Patterns of neural activity revealed that the brain could distinguish different parts of speech, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The team also made another surprising discovery. Neural signals could be used to predict upcoming words before they were spoken. "The brain appears to anticipate what comes next in a story, even without conscious awareness," said Sheth, who is also Director of The Gordon and Mary Cain Pediatric Neurology Research Foundation Laboratories within the Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital. "This kind of predictive coding is something we associate with being awake and attentive, yet it's happening here in an unconscious state," said Dr. Benjamin Hayden, professor of neurosurgery at Baylor. Rethinking Consciousness The findings suggest that important cognitive abilities, including language comprehension and prediction, may not depend on conscious awareness. Instead, consciousness itself may arise from communication across multiple brain regions rather than from activity within a single area such as the hippocampus.…" https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/06/260624025514.htm