STRUCTURE ORGANIZATION OF MEMORY IN THE PRIMATE BRAIN

正常的记忆依赖于内侧颞叶解剖学相关的结构系统，包括海马体和鼻周皮层。对这些结构的损害会严重损害我们对构成我们生活的事件和情节建立可靠记录的能力。然而，人们对情景记忆的具体信息处理功能知之甚少，而且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。在本应用程序中发展的观点是，神经学研究和认知心理学的进步汇聚在一个有价值的策略上，以定义灵长类动物的记忆大脑组织。在一组实验中，完整的猴子和动物海马（齿状回、海马体和下托）被选择性伊博tenic酸损伤，将通过一系列评估来测试对情景记忆候选操作特征的需求：1)记忆的时间组织，2)背景记忆，3)“自传式”记忆，4)记忆的关系组织。虽然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，该方法使用精心设计的探针测试来超越标准的准确性测量，阐明正常和紊乱记忆的表征结构。通过这种设计，总体目标是确定灵长类动物海马体的信息处理功能，使情景记忆。第二组实验的目标是一个密切相关的目标。关于内侧颞叶组织的一种观点是，海马体和周围皮层作为一个功能单元运作，为支持记忆的重叠和冗余处理能力提供服务。其他证据提出了一个不同的结论，即组成这个系统的结构在功能上是专门的。这些备选方案将在拟议的项目中通过比较海马体损伤与鼻周皮质选择性误吸损伤的认知影响（35区和36区）来进行评估。在研究中使用同样广泛的评估，总体目标是验证海马体和周围皮层介导不同性质的记忆处理功能的假设。综上所述，这些结果将在很大程度上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，这些条件下内侧颞叶和记忆受到显著影响。

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.