COMPARATIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF EPISODIC MEMORY IN PRIMATES

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中的一个 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 研究中心，而研究中心不一定是研究者所在的机构。 这项研究抓住了两种记忆提取模式之间的区别。“回忆”是指你“想起”了目前不存在的事情，比如你记住了出发前到达目的地必须经过的所有转弯。相比之下，“识别”是指你能分辨出你当前经历的事情是熟悉的，比如一个你必须右转的十字路口，而且比回忆起来相对容易。 许多针对非人类动物的测试表明，它们可以将之前看到的东西识别为熟悉的东西，就像你回家时你的狗或猫能认出你一样。毫无疑问，动物是有记忆力的。但是人类有不同类型的记忆，这些记忆取决于大脑的不同部分，我们还不知道猴子或其他动物是否拥有这些不同类型的记忆。因为非人类动物不能说话，所以很难确定它们是否能像人类一样回忆起不再存在的东西。 在本报告所述期间，我们了解到恒河猴可以记住简单的形状，并在稍后在触摸屏计算机上重现它们，这种能力可能表明它们可以“记住”身体上不存在的图像，这是人类的一项强大技能。这种研究猴子记忆的新技术的发展将导致更准确地描述我们在3000万年来的认知进化，将人类与我们与恒河猴的共同祖先分开。对猴子记忆的研究也将帮助我们理解是什么生物因素导致了人类健忘症和正常衰老中出现的记忆能力的衰退。

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.