Neuron responds to The Simpsons

Experiments have shown that an individual brain cell fires while a patient watches The Simpsons, and again when they recall the episode moments later.

The same cell also responded to clips from Seinfeld – but to a lesser extent.

American and Israeli researchers implanted electrodes into the brains of 13 epilepsy sufferers at UCLA Los Angeles medical centre as part of an experiment to help find where their seizures start.

They found that when their subject were watching the Simpsons, a specific cell in the brain’s hippocampus fired more than 15 times per second, about seven times more active than while watching other clips.

The hippocampus is already known to play a central role in memory, but the new findings mark an advance in understanding the neuroscience of comedy and memory.

Researchers, led by Dr. Itzhak Fried, identified single cells that became highly active during some videos and quiet during others. And when the patient recalled a specific clip, Homer Simpson for instance, the same cells that had been active while watching the clip were reignited.

Fried said: ‘The results were quite astounding. The very neuron that was selectively active during the encoding, during the original viewing, suddenly came to life. It essentially replayed that memory by firing.’

The team says that each brain cell probably responds to more than one clip, although exactly how this might work is not understood.

The results appear in the journal Science today.

Published: 5 Sep 2008