STRUCTURE ORGANIZATION OF MEMORY IN THE PRIMATE BRAIN

正常的记忆依赖于内侧颞叶的解剖学相关结构系统，包括海马结构和嗅周皮质。对这些结构的破坏会严重损害我们对构成我们生活的事件和事件建立可靠记录的能力。然而，人们对实现情景记忆的特定信息处理功能知之甚少，并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。在本申请中开发的观点是神经学研究和认知心理学的进展集中在用于定义灵长类动物中记忆的脑组织的有价值的策略上。在一组实验中，完整的猴子和选择性鹅膏蕈氨酸损伤海马的动物（齿状回、海马体和下托）将在一系列评估中进行测试，这些评估旨在操纵对情景记忆的候选操作特征的要求：1）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。虽然提出了各种各样的任务，潜在的策略涉及到一种新的方法来认知评估，使用精心设计的探针测试，超越标准的准确性措施，照亮了正常的表征结构的记忆障碍。通过这种设计，总体目标是定义灵长类海马体的信息处理功能，使情节记忆。第二组实验针对一个密切相关的目标。关于内侧颞叶组织的一种观点是，海马和鼻周皮质作为一个功能单元运作，发挥重叠和冗余的处理能力来支持记忆。其他证据表明了一个不同的结论，即组成这个系统的结构在功能上是专门化的。在拟议项目中，将通过比较海马体损伤与嗅周皮质（区域35和36）选择性吸入性病变对认知的影响，对这些替代方案进行评价。使用相同的广泛的电池的评估跨调查，总体目标是测试的假设，海马和嗅周皮层介导的性质不同的记忆处理功能。总之，这些结果将大大阐明灵长类动物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，其中内侧颞叶记忆受到显着影响。

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.