Understanding mechanisms of semantic memory through intracranial recording and stimulation

通过颅内记录和刺激了解语义记忆的机制

• 批准号: 2148753
• 负责人: Jonathan Kleen
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Francisco
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2148753&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Understanding; mechanisms; semantic; memory; through

The color of the sky, a list of fruits, the capital of France—the ability to access facts and other general information at astonishing speed is a remarkable and vital part of being human. Our vast stores of knowledge are known to be spread throughout multiple widespread regions in the brain. Yet, when a person hears a question and retrieves an answer, these disparate areas coordinate and sift through an ocean of details and associations, on-demand, to pull up specific facts. This ability is sometimes impaired with aging, and markedly deteriorates in a host of neurological conditions -- such as semantic dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and epilepsy. Despite its clear importance, and multiple scientific studies, the actual mechanisms of semantic memory have been an elusive and enduring mystery. Understanding its neural basis could lead to transformational advances in education, ameliorate the effects of aging on semantic memory, and help treat neurological diseases that ravage memory. In addition to these broader impacts, this project will engage in community outreach through public science talks and create opportunities for the promotion of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM careers in neuroscience. This research involves a unique and precious source of data: recordings directly from the brain in awake, behaving humans, that are being performed for clinical (medical, surgical) purposes to treat intractable epilepsy. Using these intracranial recordings, researchers will seek to decipher how neural populations in key cortical hubs process semantic information while participants perform custom-designed tasks of both verbal and non-verbal semantic memory. The researchers will measure neural population responses from high-density electrodes (intracranial electroencephalography – iEEG) and use machine learning to understand and predict how information flows between key regions in the semantic system and medial temporal memory regions in the brain. The project will also directly test whether electrical stimulation of brain tissue during cognitive tasks results in predictable effects, revealing whether these same structures play causal roles in semantic memory processing. Together, this human iEEG research will yield a better understanding of how semantic knowledge retrieval is encoded and supported by local neuronal populations across distributed semantic and memory circuits and broader brain networks. This work may also lead to future therapies, including emerging brain stimulation approaches that may help rescue memory loss in neurological disease.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

天空的颜色、水果的清单、法国的首都——以惊人的速度获取事实和其他一般信息的能力是人类显著而重要的一部分。众所周知，我们大量的知识存储分布在大脑的多个广泛区域。然而，当一个人听到一个问题并得到一个答案时，这些不同的区域就会协调起来，在海量的细节和关联中进行筛选，根据需要提取出具体的事实。这种能力有时会随着年龄的增长而受损，并在许多神经系统疾病（如语义性痴呆、阿尔茨海默病和癫痫）中显著恶化。尽管语义记忆的重要性显而易见，也有多项科学研究，但它的实际机制一直是一个难以捉摸和持久的谜。了解其神经基础可能会导致教育领域的变革进步，改善衰老对语义记忆的影响，并有助于治疗破坏记忆的神经系统疾病。除了这些更广泛的影响外，该项目还将通过公共科学讲座参与社区外展活动，并为女性和未被充分代表的少数族裔在神经科学领域的STEM职业发展创造机会。这项研究涉及到一个独特而宝贵的数据来源：直接记录清醒、有行为的人的大脑，用于临床（医学、外科）治疗难治性癫痫。利用这些颅内记录，研究人员将试图破译当参与者执行定制设计的语言和非语言语义记忆任务时，关键皮质中心的神经群如何处理语义信息。研究人员将测量高密度电极（颅内脑电图- iEEG）的神经群体反应，并使用机器学习来理解和预测信息如何在语义系统的关键区域和大脑的内侧时间记忆区域之间流动。该项目还将直接测试在认知任务中大脑组织的电刺激是否会产生可预测的效果，揭示这些相同的结构是否在语义记忆处理中起因果作用。总之，这项人类脑电图研究将更好地理解语义知识检索是如何被分布式语义和记忆电路以及更广泛的大脑网络中的局部神经元群编码和支持的。这项工作也可能导致未来的治疗，包括新兴的大脑刺激方法，可能有助于挽救神经系统疾病的记忆丧失。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。