Memory for Objects and Contexts Following Manipulation of Hippocampal Formation or Perirhinal Cortex Functions

主要有两个目标：1)开发一种新的改进的方法来测试大鼠的物体识别记忆，并利用它来阐明海马形成（HPC）和周围皮层（PRh）的病变对这种能力的影响。2)通过支持与其他实验室的合作项目，提高学生和其他HQP的经验和培训。我们之前的大部分研究都采用了新奇偏好范式，我们用它来评估物体识别记忆，以及适应性，我们用它来评估地点记忆和情境记忆。新奇偏好范式作为一种测试记忆的方法在科学家中很受欢迎，但我们研究中的某些观察结果对其作为一种记忆测试的内在有效性提出了严重的质疑。关于HPC和PRh在多大程度上参与物体识别记忆的过程，多年来一直存在争论。我认为，文献中缺乏清晰度源于大多数相关研究中使用的新对象偏好测试的固有局限性，并且非常需要可以用于可靠和准确地测量实验室大鼠记忆能力的新程序。在过去的几个月里，我和我的学生一直在努力建立一个新的协议来评估老鼠的物体识别，这将绕过一些新颖性偏好范式的解释限制。我们已经发现了一些令人惊讶的陷阱，但我们也取得了一些成功，我们现在相信我们有一个可靠的协议，可以在相对较短的时间内提供一个很好的对象识别记忆索引。我们计划在操作关键任务参数（必须记住的对象数量；保留间隔的持续时间）的同时收集规范数据，以确定新方法的可靠性和精度。我们将研究涉及HPC和PRh的手术病变对我们的新目标识别任务性能的影响。

There will be two primary objectives: 1) To develop a new and improved methodology for testing object-recognition memory in rats, and to use it to clarify the effects of lesions of the hippocampal formation (HPC) and perirhinal cortex (PRh) on this ability. 2) To enhance the experience and training of students and other HQP through the support of collaborative projects with other laboratories. Much of our previous research employed a novelty-preference paradigm, which we used to assess object-recognition memory, as well as adaptations that we used to assess place-memory and context-memory. The novelty-preference paradigm has become popular among scientists as a method of testing memory, but certain observations in our studies have given rise to serious doubts about its internal validity as a memory test. There has been ongoing debate for many years concerning the extent to which the HPC and PRh are critically involved in the processes that underlie object-recognition memory. I believe the lack of clarity in the literature stems from inherent limitations of the novel-object preference test that was used in most of the relevant studies, and there is a great need for new procedures that can be used to reliably and accurately measure memory abilities in laboratory rats. During the past several months, my students and I have been working to establish a new protocol for assessing object-recognition in rats that will circumvent some of the interpretational limitations of the novelty-preference paradigm. We have discovered a few surprising pitfalls, but we have also had some success, and we are now confident that we have a reliable protocol that provides a good index of object-recognition memory in a relatively short period of time. We plan to amass normative data while manipulating key task parameters (the number of objects that must be remembered; duration of the retention interval) in order to determine the reliability and precision of our new methods. We will study the effects of surgical lesions involving the HPC and PRh on performance of our new object-recognition task.