Dr. Asaf Gilboa
Scientist
FAST LEARNERS
How does the brain acquire knowledge? Dr. Asaf Gilboa's research
is devoted to finding the answers. He and Dr. Morris Moscovitch,
together with Tali Sharon from Haifa University, Israel, have found that
a learning mechanism called "fast mapping" allowed patients with
dense amnesia to learn and retain new information.
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In Dr. Gilboa's lab, researchers are investigating the principles that
allow patients to tap into the brain's primordial memory processes
to quickly learn words and facts they had never heard before, like
names of exotic fruits and animals. The researchers found that learning is incidental – picked up in the process of doing something else –
rather than through repetition. This process is similar to the way many
researchers believe young children learn new words. The findings
from this research may offer far-reaching implications for rehabilitation techniques for people who suffer from memory loss.
