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

心理学和神经科学中的一个基本问题是理解一段经历的短暂记忆如何变得稳定，并成为长期记忆。关于记忆的一个普遍理论是，睡眠对稳定和抵抗干扰的记忆体验非常重要。一种特定的理论提出，在学习过程中有两个系统在起作用，一个是快速反应系统，将临时记忆编码到一个名为海马体的大脑区域，另一个是速度较慢的系统，将睡眠期间的这些记忆转移到更高级别的大脑皮层区域，形成更持久的形式。这一过程依赖于海马体和大脑皮层之间的交流互动。这项研究首次直接验证了大脑区域之间的交叉相互作用在从经验中形成稳定的、更持久的记忆的假说。这种快速反应和长期表征之间相互作用的证据，对于理解一些与记忆有关的神经学问题，解释记忆随年龄的变化，以及开发新的健壮的计算机记忆系统具有重要意义。该项目为博士后研究员以及数据和工具传播提供培训机会。随着啮齿动物获得新的记忆，并将这些记忆巩固成稳定的、更持久的长期记忆形式，将从海马体和新皮质同时进行电和光学记录。该项目检查了这些不同大脑区域的活动模式，以检验这样一种假设，即休息状态下交错的活动模式反映了近期和长期记忆的相互作用。此外，对静息状态和任务依赖状态下的大脑活动进行比较，将考察稳定的长期记忆是否通过巩固而规律化的问题，这一问题不那么详细，也更笼统。这项研究将测量尖峰神经元集合中的模式以及脑电活动的整体模式，以检验关于记忆巩固过程的这些假说。

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.