Comparative Neuropsychology of Episodic Memory: Unmasking the Elements of Hippocampal Function

情景记忆的比较神经心理学：揭示海马功能的要素

• 批准号: 0745573
• 负责人: Robert Hampton
• 金额: $ 55.99万
• 依托单位: Emory University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-05-15 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0745573&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Comparative; Neuropsychology; Episodic; Memory; Unmasking

Imagine that you lacked autobiographical memory and could not recall what you did this morning or how you got to the room you are in now. It would certainly be difficult to organize your life and meet your obligations. Yet this is the situation faced by certain amnesic humans with damage to the temporal lobes of their brain. It is also the condition in which many scientists believe nonhuman animals exist; they are mentally "stuck" forever in the present. Studies of human amnesics have dramatically revealed the fact that apparently seamless human memory actually consists of distinct systems. Each memory system is specialized to process different information including habits and skills, general factual knowledge, and first-person autobiographical information. For example, human episodic memories are rich in contextual details that specify their source, or the occasion on which they were formed. One might experience detailed recollection of the smell of freshly mown grass as you talked to a well-dressed but unshaven young man at a wedding last August. By contrast, semantic memories lack contextual details. You know dogs have tails, but probably do not remember details of the occasion on which you learned this fact. The distinction between episodic and semantic memory in humans is central in cognitive neuroscience and has been established by the combination of behavioral studies, neuroimaging studies, and studies of patients with brain damage. In contrast, we know little about the extent to which these memory systems exist in nonhuman animals. Indeed many cognitive scientists argue that episodic memory may be uniquely human. It is impossible to evaluate this claim, or to develop appropriate animal models for the study of memory, without appropriate behavioral tests. With the support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Robert Hampton and his students at Emory University will develop new memory tests capable of measuring aspects of episodic memory in nonhuman animals. Specifically, Dr. Hampton will develop tests to investigate whether subjects remember the source of their memories and whether they can recall as well as recognize previously experienced images. Performance on these tests will be contrasted with other memory performance and the brain basis for these types of memory will be determined. Development of these new cognitive tests, and training young scientists to use them, will enable future work on cognition and the biological mechanisms that underlie it.In addition to advancing our understanding of memory and cognition in an important model of human cognition, this project will also have broader impacts in a number of ways: 1) Graduate students, including a large percentage of female students, are centrally involved in the research and share their enthusiasm for neuroscience through visits to high schools during events such as Brain Awareness Week. 2) Each summer, at least one student from the BRAIN program, which recruits undergraduates from groups underrepresented in science, will work on the proposed projects. 3) Undergraduate students from Dr. Hampton's introductory psychology class are recruited annually to work in the lab through research experience programs funded by Emory College. 4) Dr. Hampton and graduate students will perform docent activities at a cognition exhibit at Zoo Atlanta, thus conveying the content and excitement of their work to the public. 5) Dr. Hampton and his lab will share their findings through expansion of their existing website, which is aimed at an undergraduate level audience. One of the goals of the website is to aid in the recruitment of graduating students to neurocognitive research.

想象一下，你缺乏自传记忆，不记得今天早上做了什么，也不记得你是如何到达现在所在的房间的。安排你的生活和履行你的义务肯定会很困难。然而，这正是某些大脑颞叶受损的健忘症患者所面临的情况。许多科学家认为，这也是非人类动物存在的条件。他们的精神永远“困”在当下。对人类健忘症的研究戏剧性地揭示了这样一个事实：看似无缝的人类记忆实际上是由不同的系统组成的。每个记忆系统专门处理不同的信息，包括习惯和技能、一般事实知识和第一人称自传信息。例如，人类的情景记忆具有丰富的上下文细节，可以指定它们的来源或它们形成的场合。去年八月的一场婚礼上，当你与一位衣着考究但胡子拉碴的年轻人交谈时，人们可能会详细回忆起刚割过的青草的味道。相比之下，语义记忆缺乏上下文细节。您知道狗有尾巴，但可能不记得您了解到这一事实的场合的细节。人类情景记忆和语义记忆之间的区别是认知神经科学的核心，是通过行为研究、神经影像学研究和脑损伤患者研究的结合而确定的。相比之下，我们对非人类动物中这些记忆系统的存在程度知之甚少。事实上，许多认知科学家认为情景记忆可能是人类独有的。如果没有适当的行为测试，就不可能评估这种说法，或开发适当的动物模型来研究记忆。在国家科学基金会的支持下，埃默里大学的罗伯特·汉普顿博士和他的学生将开发新的记忆测试，能够测量非人类动物的情景记忆的各个方面。具体来说，汉普顿博士将开发测试来调查受试者是否记得他们记忆的来源，以及他们是否能够回忆和识别以前经历过的图像。这些测试的表现将与其他记忆表现进行对比，并确定这些类型记忆的大脑基础。开发这些新的认知测试，并培训年轻科学家使用它们，将使未来关于认知及其生物学机制的工作成为可能。除了增进我们对人类认知重要模型中的记忆和认知的理解外，该项目还将在许多方面产生更广泛的影响：1）研究生，包括很大一部分女学生，集中参与研究，并通过访问高等院校分享他们对神经科学的热情。 大脑意识周等活动期间的学校。 2) 每年夏天，至少一名来自 BRAIN 项目的学生将参与拟议的项目，该项目从科学界代表性不足的群体中招收本科生。 3) 每年都会招募汉普顿博士心理学入门课程的本科生通过埃默里学院资助的研究体验项目在实验室工作。 4) 汉普顿博士和研究生将在亚特兰大动物园的认知展览上进行讲解活动，从而向公众传达他们工作的内容和兴奋点。 5) 汉普顿博士和他的实验室将通过扩展其现有网站来分享他们的发现，该网站针对的是本科水平的受众。该网站的目标之一是帮助招募毕业生进行神经认知研究。