LTP and the Spaced Trials Effect

长时间的“填鸭式”学习不如间隔一小时或更长时间的多次训练（即间隔试验）有效。这种学习的基本特征是否反映了大脑编码记忆机制的一个未被认识的特征所施加的限制？如果是这样，是否有可能绕过这些限制来加速学习呢？目前的工作建立在该研究员实验室的最新发现之上，以解决这些基本问题。针对不同神经行为水平的技术将被使用：i)来自脑细胞的电记录来分析记忆相关的变化，ii)局部开发的光学显微镜技术来测量两个脑细胞（即突触）之间连接处的化学信号，以及iii)用于测量动物在自然、复杂环境中学习的行为程序。这位研究者之前的工作表明，一种被称为整合素的不寻常的大脑蛋白质调节着与记忆相关的大脑区域的突触，这些蛋白质具有新颖的特性，在突触水平上产生一种类似于学习研究中看到的间隔试验效应的现象。由于研究的时间框架接近于课堂教学，这些研究可以为改善教育的基于大脑的策略增加一个全新的维度。他们还将提出操纵控制稳定记忆形成的时间规则的药理学方法。最后，该项目将为学生（本科生到博士后）提供一个独特的机会，其中一些学生来自少数民族，他们将共同研究对基础科学和社会至关重要的问题。

A long "cramming" session is a much less effective way of learning than are multiple training sessions separated by an hour or more (i.e., spaced trials). Does this basic characteristic of learning reflect limits imposed by an unrecognized feature of the brain mechanisms that encode memory? If so, is it possible to circumvent these limits so as to accelerate learning? The present work builds on recent discoveries from this investigator's laboratory to address these fundamental questions. Techniques targeted at different neurobehavioral levels will be used: i) electrical recordings from brain cells to analyze memory-related changes, ii) locally developed light microscopy techniques to measure chemical signaling at the junction between two brain cells (i.e., synapses), and iii) behavioral procedures for measuring learning by animals in naturalistic, complex environments. Previous work by this investigator showed that an unusual class of brain proteins called integrins regulates synapses in a memory-related brain region and that these proteins have novel properties that produce a phenomenon at the level of the synapse that resembles the spaced trials effect seen in learning studies. Because the time frame under study approximates that of a classroom session, these studies could add an entirely new dimension to brain-based strategies for improving education. They will also suggest pharmacological means for manipulating the timing rules that govern the formation of stable memories. Finally, the program will provide a unique opportunity for students (undergraduate through post-doctoral), several of whom are from minority groups, to work together on a problem that is critical to basic science and as well to society.