Spatial learning

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Damage to the hippocampus prevents the formation of new long term memories in humans and prevents the encoding of spatial maps in rats.  A compromised hippocampus also occurs in patients with Alzheimer's disease.  Failure to store information may occur because the person lacks the capacity to create a good spatial-temporal map for new events.My research analyzes the fundamental processes that are involved in the formation of spatial maps.  This work is being carried out in rats.  I examine the formation of maps in appetitive situations where the rats are searching out the location of food.  I also examine the formation of maps in aversive situations where rats are searching for the location of a hidden platform that allows them to escape from water.  The current work examines the factors that contribute to rats knowing where they are in their environment based upon their capacity to path integrate.  Path integration is an extremely important computational process that allows an organism to keep track of its position relative to the starting point of its trip by using information about its own movement.  Path integration is also important because it is believed to underlie the formation of spatial maps.  My research also examines how path integration interacts with memory processes and how traveling through an environment enables a rat to become oriented.  My approach contributes to our understanding of a fundamental cognitive process and to the development of a unified theory of spatial learning and memory.  Understanding the processes that go into spatial learning and memory enables us to provide better models of cognitive dysfunction and, ultimately, to ameliorate those dysfunctions in humans.  This benefits Canadians because drug treatments that are devised to help people are only effective and safe if we understand the processes that these drugs influence.