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Plasticity and language in the anaesthetized human hippocampus

146 points by hhs

by slicktux

5 subcomments

I sometimes ge the most complex logical dreams whilst going to sleep on a programming problem. The dreams are normal dreams but structured like a programming problem or logic…it’s like my brain is trying to dream normally but it’s also Fixated on programming logic so it subliminally incorporates it into dreams. Then I wake up and I feel like I’ve compiled the whole code in my head and did not rest.

by tgv

1 subcomments

This sounds odd to me:
> ... neural signals could predict upcoming words in a sentence. ... This kind of predictive coding is something we associate with being awake and attentive, yet it’s happening here in an unconscious state
In psycholinguistics, the assumption is, and always has been, that language processing is unconscious, a background process like visual object recognition. For starters, conscious attention is too slow by two orders of magnitude, and infants can process language, while presumably not yet (fully) conscious.

by healthworker

6 subcomments

This is strong evidence against LLMs experiencing qualia. (I know that that topic often gets people laughed out of the room but please don't jump on me for engaging in that debate. When we can collect evidence and be able to show it to people.)

by johnbarron

1 subcomments

This is not new. Read Phantoms in the Brain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantoms_in_the_Brain

by pstuart

1 subcomments

I guess this makes sense -- a brain is gonna do brain stuff. The only difference is that we're not present to witness it.

by westurner

0 subcomment

ScholarlyArticle: "Plasticity and language in the anaesthetized human hippocampus" (2026) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10448-0
Sleep-learning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep-learning
Also, Sleep and learning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_and_learning

by jdw64

1 subcomments

If that mechanism can be activated, it may significantly compress the time required for education and learning.

by alexfromapex

1 subcomments

I would think anesthesia, in specific doses, would only attenuate consciousness...if it stopped other processes your organs and nervous system would stop. I guess this confirms that.