STRUCTURE ORGANIZATION OF MEMORY IN THE PRIMATE BRAIN

正常的记忆依赖于内侧颞叶的解剖相关结构系统，包括海马结构和大脑皮质周围。对这些结构的破坏会导致对构成我们生活的事件和事件建立可靠记录的能力严重受损。然而，人们对实现情景记忆的特定信息处理功能知之甚少，对于海马体和相关大脑区域如何贡献这种能力也没有达成共识。在本申请中提出的观点是，神经学研究和认知心理学的进步汇聚在定义灵长类动物记忆的大脑组织的有价值的策略上。在一组实验中，完整的猴子和海马体(齿状回、海马体和下丘)有选择性鹅掌酸损伤的动物将通过一系列评估进行测试，这些评估旨在操纵对情景记忆的候选操作特征的要求：L)记忆的时间组织，2)背景记忆，3)自传体记忆，4)记忆的关系组织。尽管提出了各种各样的任务，但潜在的策略涉及一种新的认知评估方法，使用精心设计的探测测试来超越标准的准确性测量，揭示正常和无序记忆的表征结构。通过这个设计，总体目标是定义灵长类海马体的信息处理功能，使之能够进行情景记忆。第二组实验针对的是一个密切相关的目标。关于内侧颞叶的组织，一种观点是，海马体和周边皮质作为一个功能单位运作，为支持记忆的重叠和多余的处理能力提供服务。其他证据表明了不同的结论，即组成这个系统的结构在功能上是专门的。在拟议的项目中，将通过比较海马体损伤和选择性吸入性损伤周围皮质(第35和36区)对认知的影响来评估这些替代方案。使用同一组广泛的研究评估，总体目标是测试假设，即海马体和周围皮质介导定性不同的助记处理功能。综上所述，这些结果将极大地阐明灵长类大脑中记忆的结构和组织，并最终推动对各种临床条件的研究进展，在这些情况下，内侧颞叶的记忆会受到显著影响。

Normal memory depends on a system of anatomically related structures in the medial temporal lobe that includes the hippocampal formation and perirhinal cortex. Damage to these structures causes profound impairment in the ability to establish a reliable record of the events and episodes that comprise our lives. The specific information processing functions that enable episodic memory are poorly understood, however, and there is no consensus on how the hippocampus and related brain regions contribute this capacity. The perspective developed in the present application is that advances in neurological research and cognitive psychology converge on a valuable strategy for defining the brain organization of memory in primates. In one set of experiments, intact monkeys and animals with selective ibotenic acid lesions of the hippocampus (the dentate gyrus, hippocampus proper, and subiculum) will be tested across a battery of assessments designed to manipulate demands on candidate operating characteristics of episodic memory: l) the temporal organization of memory, 2) memory for context, 3) "autobiographical" memory, and 4) the relational organization of memory. Although a variety of tasks are proposed, the underlying strategy involves a novel approach to cognitive assessment that uses carefully designed probe tests to go beyond standard accuracy measures, illuminating the representational structure of normal an disordered memory. By this design the overall aim is to define the information processing functions of the primate hippocampus that enable episodic memory. A second set of experiments targets a closely related goal. One perspective on the organization of the medial temporal lobe is that the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex operate as a functional unit, subserving overlapping and redundant processing capacities in support of memory. Other evidence suggests a different conclusion, that the structures comprising this system are functionally specialized. These alternatives will be evaluated in the proposed project by comparing the cognitive effects of damage to the hippocampus with selective aspiration lesions of the perirhinal cortex (Areas 35 and 36). Using the same extensive battery of assessments across investigations, the overall goal is to test the hypothesis that the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex mediate qualitatively distinct mnemonic processing functions. Taken together, the results will substantially illuminate the structure and organization of memory in the primate brain and, ultimately, fuel progress in research on a variety of clinical conditions in which the medial temporal lobe an memory are prominently affected.