Collaborative Research - Cholinergic and sleep regulation of human memory and learning

学习和记忆事实、经验和技能的能力对人类的各种活动至关重要。 虽然经验是如何编码到记忆中的，但这种记忆是如何巩固并在后来重新获得的，心理学家和神经科学家已经进行了广泛的研究，但记忆加工发生的关键背景尚未得到充分研究。 这是神经化学物质的自然上升和下降，已知这些化学物质会通过睡眠和清醒周期影响广泛的大脑功能。 加州大学滨江分校（UCR）的萨拉·梅德尼克博士（Sara Mednick）和加州大学伯克利分校（UCB）的迈克尔·西尔弗博士（Michael Silver）及其同事将研究乙酰胆碱（Ach）是一种在学习和记忆中起关键作用的主要神经调节剂，它如何在编码、巩固和提取阶段对神经处理产生不同的影响。 卡巴拉汀是一种治疗阿尔茨海默病的药物，将在训练前（编码）、训练后（清醒状态下的巩固）、睡前（睡眠依赖性巩固）和测试前（恢复）给予人类受试者，以增加Ach。将使用高密度脑电图（EEG）监测脑电活动，以表征不同皮质区域如何受到与睡眠-觉醒周期相关的ACH自然变化和药物治疗的影响。总之，这些实验将提供关键的经验数据，以测试学习和记忆的理论，考虑到神经调节的动态变化乙酰胆碱已与阿尔茨海默病，一种影响超过500万美国人的神经退行性疾病。更好地了解ACh在记忆机制中的作用将有助于治疗患有这种疾病的患者，并开发增强健康记忆的工具。更好地了解学习和记忆的神经化学机制也将有助于改善教育实践和应用培训制度，对睡眠在该项目中的作用的调查将有助于强调睡眠在睡眠水平创纪录低和由于不良睡眠习惯而导致功能受损的社会中的重要性。Mednick博士和银博士将开发关于睡眠和乙酰胆碱以及学习和记忆的作用的教学模块和课程，以及关于睡眠方法的课程，这将有助于培训学生在这一领域进行研究。最后，Mednick博士将在当地的西班牙裔公立医院举办关于睡眠对健康益处的公开讲座，并将与UCR健康中心合作，通过Nap-Ins和其他大学活动促进大学生午睡和健康的睡眠习惯。

The ability to learn and remember facts, experiences, and skills is critical for a wide range of human activities. Although how experience is encoded into memory, how such memory is then consolidated and later retrived have been extensively studied by psychologists and neuroscientists, a critical context in which memory processing taking place has been understudied. That is the natural rise and fall of the neurochemicals that are known to influence a wide range of brain functions through the sleep and wake cycles. Here Dr. Sara Mednick of the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and Dr. Michael Silver of the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and their colleagues will investigate how acetylcholine (Ach), a major neuromodulator known to play a critical role in learning and memory, might differentially affect neural processing at the stages of encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. Rivastigmine a drug for treating Alzheimer's Disease, will be given to human subjects to increase Ach just before training (encoding), just after training (consolidation in the waking state), just before bedtime (sleep-dependent consolidation), and just before testing (retrieval). Brain electrical activity will be monitored using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) to characterize how different cortical regions are affected by both natural variations in ACH associated with sleep-wake cycles and by pharmacological treatment. Together, these experiments will provide the critical empirical data to test theories of learning and memory that take into consideration of dynamic changes in neuromodulationAcetylcholine has been associated with Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative disease that affects over 5 million Americans. Better understanding of ACh's role in mechanisms of memory will help treat patients with the disease and also develop tools for enhancing healthy memory as well. A better understanding of neurochemical mechanisms of learning and memory will also help improve educational practice and applied training regimes, and investigations of the role of sleep in this project will help emphasize the importance of sleep in a society that has record low levels of sleep and impaired functioning due to poor sleep habits. Dr. Mednick and Dr. Silver will develop teaching modules and courses on the roles of sleep and acetylcholine and learning and memory as well as a course on sleep methods that will help train students to conduct research in this area. Finally, Dr. Mednick will present public lectures on the health benefits of sleep at local Hispanic-serving public hospitals and will work with the UCR Health Center to promote napping and healthy sleep habits in college students through Nap-Ins and other university-wide events.