COMPARATIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF EPISODIC MEMORY IN PRIMATES

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 这项研究抓住了两种记忆提取模式之间的区别。“Recall”指的是当你“想起”目前还没有出现的事情时，比如在出发前，你想起了到达目的地所必须经历的所有转弯。相比之下，“Recognition”指的是你能辨别出你目前所经历的事情是熟悉的，比如你必须右转的某个给定的十字路口，这比回忆要容易得多。 对非人类动物的许多测试表明，它们可以识别以前见过的熟悉的东西，就像你回家时你的狗或猫认出你一样。毫无疑问，动物有记忆力。但人类有不同类型的记忆，依赖于大脑的不同部分，我们还不知道猴子或其他动物是否分享了这些不同类型的记忆中的大部分。因为非人类动物不会说话，所以很难确定它们是否能像人类一样，在某些东西不再存在的时候回忆起它。 在报告期间，我们了解到恒河猴可以记住简单的形状，然后在触摸屏电脑上再现它们，这一能力可能表明它们可以将物理上不存在的图像“唤起”脑海中，这是人类的一项强大技能。这项研究猴子记忆的新技术的发展将导致更准确地描述人类与恒河猴共同祖先3000万年来的认知进化。对猴子记忆力的研究也将帮助我们了解是什么生物因素导致了人类健忘症和正常衰老中记忆能力的下降。

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. This study captures the distinction between two modes of memory retrieval. "Recall" is when you "bring to mind" things that are not currently present, such as when you remember all the turns you must take to get to your destination before setting out. By contrast "recognition" is when you can tell that something you currently experience is familiar, such as a given intersection where you must turn right, and is comparatively easier than recall. Many tests for nonhuman animals show that they can recognize something seen before as familiar, just as your dog or cat recognizes you when you come home. There is no doubt that animals have memory. But humans have different types of memory that depend on different parts of the brain, and we do not yet know whether monkeys or other animals share most of these different types of memory. Because nonhuman animals cannot speak it has been difficult to determine whether they can, like humans, recall something when it is no longer present. During the reporting period, we learned that rhesus monkeys can remember simple shapes and reproduce them later on a touch screen computer, an ability that may show that they can "bring to mind" images that are physically absent, a powerful skill in humans. The development of this new technique for studying memory in monkeys will lead to more accurate characterization our cognitive evolution over the 30 million years that separate humans from our shared ancestor with rhesus monkeys. Studies of memory in monkeys will also help us understand what biological factors are responsible for the erosion of recall abilities that occurs in human amnesia and normal aging.