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Researchers at the University of Bremen have shown for the first time that the exact moment at which a signal hits receptive nerve cells determines how it is processed – and that attention uses this timing specifically for processing relevant information.
It has long been known that the brain preferentially processes information that we focus our attention on – a classic example is the so-called cocktail party effect: "In an environment full of voices, music, and background noise, the brain manages to concentrate on a single voice. The other noises are not objectively quieter, but are perceived less strongly at that moment," explains brain researcher Dr. Eric Drebitz from the University of Bremen. The brain focuses its processing on the information that is currently relevant – in this case, the voice of the conversation partner – while other signals are received but not forwarded and processed to the same extent.
Drebitz: "Until now, it was unclear how this survival-critical mechanism of selecting relevant information is controlled. When you cross a street and a car suddenly appears from the side, the brain immediately focuses its processing on this one piece of visual information – the movement of the vehicle. Other impressions, such as signs, passersby, or billboards, fade into the background as they distract our attention and slow down our reaction. It is only through this targeted prioritization that we are able to react quickly and take evasive action."
Timing: The Key to Information Processing
The team led by neuroscientists Andreas Kreiter and Eric Drebitz has now provided first causal evidence of how the brain transmits and processes relevant information: “Whether a signal is processed further in the brain depends crucially on whether it arrives at the right moment – during a short phase of increased receptivity of the nerve cells,” explains neuroscientist Drebitz: “Nerve cells do not work continuously, but in rapid cycles. They are particularly active and receptive for a few milliseconds, followed by a window of lower activity and excitability. This cycle repeats itself approximately every 10 to 20 milliseconds. Only when a signal arrived shortly before the peak of this active phase did it change the behavior of the neurons.” This temporal coordination is the fundamental mechanism of information processing. Attention makes targeted use of this phenomenon by aligning the timing of the nerve cells so that relevant signals arrive precisely in this time window, while others are excluded.
In order to prove the cause of this fundamental mechanism of our brain, selective stimulus transmission was studied in rhesus monkeys – a species that is very similar to humans in the organization of the cerebral cortex. The animals performed a visual task on a screen while very weak electrical stimuli were generated in an early section of the visual processing pathway (area V2). These artificial signals were unrelated to the task and served solely as test stimuli. The team then analyzed how these signals affected a downstream area (area V4). "The artificially triggered signals only influenced the activity of the nerve cells in V4 when they arrived during a short phase of increased receptivity. If the same signal arrived too early or too late, it had no effect. If it arrived within the sensitive time window, it not only changed the activity of the nerve cells, but also the behavior of the animals: they reacted more slowly and made more mistakes – from which it can be concluded that the test signal, which contained no information for the task, became part of the processing and thus interfered with the performance of the actual task," explains Drebitz.
Important for Understanding the Brain and Treating Alzheimer's and ADHD
“The results provide a basis for developing more precise models of the brain. They show how information is selected and prioritized before it leads to perception, learning, and behavior,” says Drebitz. However, this knowledge is not only important for foundation research, but also for the field of medicine, “since diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ADHD are associated with problems in the selective processing and storage of relevant information. And also for new technologies such as brain-computer interfaces that communicate directly with the brain." For such systems to work reliably, they must feed in information at precisely timed intervals and correctly read the nerve cell patterns. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) could also benefit from these principles, as they could serve as a template for particularly flexible and efficient processing.
Dr. Eric Drebitz, Cognitive Neurophysiology, University of Bremen, drebitz@brain.uni-bremen.de
Drebitz, E., Rausch, LP. & Kreiter, A.K. Gamma-band synchronization between neurons in the visual cortex is causal for effective information processing and behavior. Nat Commun 16, 7380 (2025).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62732-8
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/brain
Dr. Eric Drebitz and his team reviewing research findings.
Source: Peter Bujotzek
Copyright: Universität Bremen / Peter Bujotzek
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Dr. Eric Drebitz and his team reviewing research findings.
Source: Peter Bujotzek
Copyright: Universität Bremen / Peter Bujotzek
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