Researchers have been able to have better idea on how memories of everyday events are formed in the brain. With the help of an experiment, researchers have come to know that neurons in the medial temporal lobe have an important role to play in forming these memories.

In the study, 14 people having severe epilepsy were enrolled. An experiment was carried out in which electrodes were implanted to know the brain location where seizures happen. The electrodes helped the researchers have a hint about individual neurons that encode memories.

After implantation, the participants were shown around 100 pictures of celebrities and places. The researchers came to know about individual neurons that fired to a specific person but not to a place and created images of the person at that place.

In the next round, the volunteers were shown the composite images and the researchers tracked the individual neurons’ activity. The researchers noticed that the individual neurons that have responded to a specific person have now started responding to location as well.

The researchers said neurons change their firing properties at the same moment when the subjects formed the new memories.

The research has been carried out by Matias Ison and Rodrigo Quian Quiroga at the University of Leicester and Itzhak Fried at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Lead author Ison said that it is the first study that shows how an individual neuron correlates learning of new contextual associations in the human brain.