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They'll all fall

Thursday, October 20, 2005

(outlink) Old habits don't die. They hibernate.


Habitual activity--smoking, eating fatty foods, gambling--changes neural activity patterns in a specific region of the brain when habits are formed. These neural patterns created by habit can be changed or altered. But when a stimulus from the old days returns, the dormant pattern can reassert itself, according to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, putting an individual in a neural state akin to being on autopilot.


More on CNET.com

The original article is from nature.com, and deals with habit learning in rats (in the basal ganglia). This also mesh well with previous Alzheimer research, BTW.

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