Welcome to the Quanta Audio Edition.

In each of these bi-weekly episodes, we bring you a story direct from the Quanta website

about developments in basic science and mathematics.

I'm Susan Vallett.

Individual cells in the brain light up when we think about specific ideas. These concept neurons,

once known as Jennifer Aniston cells, help us think, imagine, and remember episodes from our lives.

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That's where Editor-in-Chief Samir Patel talks to our writers and editors about more of

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Imagine you're on a first date, sipping a martini at a bar.

You eat an olive and patiently listen to your date tell you about his job at a bank.

Your brain is processing the scene, in part by breaking it down into concepts.

Bar, date, martini, olive, bank. Deep in your brain, neurons known

as concept cells are firing. You might have concept cells that fire for martinis, but not for

olives, or ones that fire for bars, perhaps even that specific bar, if you've ever been there before.

The idea of a bank also has its own set of concept cells, maybe millions of them.

And there, in that dimly lit bar, you're starting to form concept cells for your date, whether you like him or not.

Those cells will fire when something reminds you

of him. Concept neurons fire for their concept, no matter how it's presented, in real life or a photo,

in text or speech, on television or in a podcast. Elizabeth Buffalo, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington,

says it's more abstract and really different from what you're seeing. For decades,

...