New York: Long thought to be merely a by-product of neuron activity, brain waves may play a critical role in communication between different parts of the brain, a new study suggests. As neurons fire, they produce brain waves that oscillate at different frequencies.

The researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that two brain regions that are key to learning - the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex - use two different brain-wave frequencies to communicate as the brain learns to associate unrelated objects.