Systems neuroscience of human long-term memory, ageing and dementia

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We are trying to understand how our brains support different types of memory, which is important to understand the type of memory problems that follow brain damage or disease, or following normal ageing. Our memories express themselves in different ways. For example, sometimes you see a face in a crowd and immediately remember who it is, and when you last saw them. On other occasions, the face might seem familiar, but you can't for the life of you remember who they are. These are two expressions of conscious memory. On yet other occasions, you may insist you have no memory for the person, even though other aspects of your behaviour, such as your attitude towards them, can be shown to be biased by the fact that you have, in fact, seen them before. This is a type of unconscious memory. Recent research suggests that these different expressions of memory reflect the operation of distinct neural systems in our brains. The aim of our research is to explore the differences between these types of memory, and their neural bases, using functional neuroimaging techniques that measure brain activity while people are remembering things. Understanding conscious and unconscious memory is important not only for helping people who suffer from memory problems following brain damage, such as strokes, or following disease, such as Alzheimer's, but for all of us who experience memory problems as we grow older.