Delineating the neural basis of sequence memory in the rat

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Our ability to remember the order in which things happen, or the order in which we encounter items in our daily lives is a fundamental part of our memory. For example when we travel from one place to another, one way to remember our route is to recall the series of landmarks we pass along the way. Similarly when we recount a personal experience or event, any episode will involve a sequence of events occurring in a particular order. Not only is sequential information important for recalling the past, but it is also crucial for planning and organising future behaviour. The hypothesis of this proposal is that sequence memory depends on three key brain regions, the perirhinal cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, however each region may make a different contribution to sequence memory depending on the number and position of the to-be-remembered items in the sequence. To test this hypothesis we will combine state-of-the art molecular biology technologies with specific behavioural tasks that isolate the different types of sequence information which can be used. We will also explore the hypothesis that the perirhinal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus must work together to form a neural circuit during the learning of a sequence of items, and that the ability to store this information depends on a specific molecule, CREB within the nucleus of cell. The results of this research willl ultimately allow a greater understanding of how we are able to learn and store memory information in the brain.