LTP: A mechanism for object-place learning in the prefrontal cortex ?

识别记忆对日常生活至关重要。它涉及到我们判断以前是否遇到过某事的能力。为了做出这些判断，我们能够使用一系列不同的记忆过程。例如，我们可以根据我们是否在特定的环境、位置或背景中看到过刺激来做出识别记忆判断，也就是说，我们之前是否在特定的地方看到或遇到过一个物体。这一提议的假设是，这种特殊的记忆过程（被称为物体就地记忆）是由大脑的一个区域——前额皮质控制的。有人提出，记忆的形成和储存依赖于神经元之间连接的加强，因此增加了脑细胞之间的交流。这些实验的目的是了解前额叶皮层的脑细胞中可能发生的导致它们之间交流增加的过程，并检查物体原位记忆的形成和存储是否需要这些相同的过程。这样的研究将使我们更好地理解我们是如何在大脑中学习和存储记忆信息的。

Recognition memory is essential to every day life. It involves our ability to judge whether or not we have encountered something previously. To make these judgements we are able to use a range of different memory processes. For example, we can make recognition memory judgement based upon whether we have seen a stimulus within a particular environment, location or context i.e. whether an object has been seen or encountered previously in a particular place. The hypothesis of this proposal is that this particular memory processes (called object-in-place memory) is controlled within a region of the brain, the prefrontal cortex. It has been proposed that the formation and storage of memory relies on the strengthening of the connections between neurones, and therefore increased communication between brain cells. The aim of the experiments is to understand the processes which may be occurring within brain cells in the prefrontal cortex which result in increased communication between them, and to examine whether the formation and storage of object-in-place memories requires these same processes. Such research willl allow a greater understanding of how we are able to learn and store memory information in the brain.