IMAGING MEDIAL TEMPORAL LOBE ACTIVITY - MEMORY & EMOTION IN AWAKE MONKEYS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The medial temporal lobe's role in emotion and memory has been extensively studied invasively in animals, and in humans using neuroimaging. However, the link between human and animal studies would be strengthened if similar techniques can be applied to verify the neural activity associated with behavior. We proposed to use functional MRI to study the roles of the hippocampus and amygdala in emotion and memory in awake, behaving rhesus macaques. We have currently built the primate chair that will permit to immobilize the awake monkeys during neuroimaging testing; written the software to permit presentation of visual stimuli in the scanner triggered by the scanner pulse; acclimated subjects to the scanner and eye-tracker ; and conducted the initial series of scans to validate our scanning parameters. Those data are currently being analyzed so we can adjust any remaining parameters prior to final scanning. These initial experiments will establish the technique at Yerkes and enable future studies that will selectively manipulate brain structures and explore changes in behavior and neural activity.