Collaborative Research: NCS-FO Hippocampal-Cortical Communication and the Extraction of Knowledge from Memory

心理学和神经科学的一个基本问题是理解一个经历的短暂记忆是如何变得稳定并作为长期记忆可用的。关于记忆的一般理论是，睡眠对于使记忆稳定、不受干扰很重要。一种特定的理论提出，在学习过程中有两个系统在起作用，一个是快速作用的系统，它将临时记忆编码到大脑的一个叫做海马体的区域，另一个是较慢的系统，它在睡眠时将这些记忆转移到更高层次的皮层区域，形成更永久的记忆。这个过程取决于海马体和大脑皮层之间的交流互动。目前的研究是第一次直接测试大脑区域之间的交错相互作用在从经验中形成稳定的更永久的记忆的假设。速效表征和长期表征之间相互作用的证据对理解许多涉及记忆的神经问题、解释随着年龄增长的记忆变化以及开发新的强大的计算机记忆系统具有重要意义。该项目为博士后提供培训机会，并提供数据和工具传播。当啮齿类动物获得新的记忆并将这些记忆巩固为稳定的长期记忆时，海马体和新皮层将同时进行电子和光学记录。该项目检查了这些不同大脑区域的活动模式，以验证静息状态下交错活动模式反映了近期记忆和长期记忆相互作用的假设。此外，对静息状态和任务依赖状态下的大脑活动的比较将检验稳定的长期记忆是否通过巩固而变得更少细节和更普遍的问题。这项研究将测量神经元的峰值模式以及脑电活动的整体模式，以测试这些关于记忆巩固过程的假设。

A fundamental problem in psychology and neuroscience is to understand how the transient memory of an experience becomes stabilized and available as long-term memory. A general theory of memory is that sleep is important to make the memory of an experience stable and resistant to interference. One specific theory has proposed that there are two systems at work during learning, a fast acting system that encodes temporary memories into a brain area called the hippocampus and a slower system that transfer these memories during sleep into a more permanent form in higher-level cortical regions. This process depends on a communicative interaction between the hippocampus and cortex. The present research is the first to directly test the hypothesis of the interleaved interaction between brain regions in the formation of stable more permanent memories from experience. Evidence of this interaction between fast-acting and long-term representations has implications for understanding a number of neurological problems involving memory, for explaining changes in memory with aging, and for the development of new robust computer memory systems. The project provides training opportunities for postdoctoral fellows and data and tools dissemination. Simultaneous electrical and optical recordings from the hippocampus and neocortex will be made as rodents acquire new memories and consolidate these memories into a stable more permanent form of long-term memory. The project examines patterns of activity in these different brain regions to test the hypothesis that interleaved activity patterns during resting state reflects an interplay of recent and long-term memories. Further, a comparison of brain activity in resting states and task-dependent states will examine the question of whether stable long-term memories are regularized by consolidation to be less detailed and more general. The research will measure patterns in collections of spiking neurons along with global patterns of brain electrical activity to test these hypotheses about the process of memory consolidation.