Activity-Dependent Mechanisms of Memory Consolidation

项目摘要 视觉是一种主动的感觉，眼球运动有力地塑造了视觉的获取。 关于世界的信息。这个项目研究了运动学习如何调节神经元的功能。 控制眼球运动的电路，以在短时间内保持眼球运动的准确性， 长时间尺度。研究的具体重点是了解眼动学习， 也就是说，通过经验提高眼球运动的准确性，是从 短期到长期储存。这种巩固过程不仅发生在运动技能上， 眼球运动，而是学习和记忆系统的一般特征。一些记忆， 包括视觉记忆在内的视觉记忆，在最初获得视觉记忆之后的时间内被转换。 记忆，在某种程度上，使旧的，巩固的记忆独立于大脑区域， 对更新的记忆至关重要。这一过程被称为系统整合， 对大脑中最初对记忆至关重要的区域的神经元活动的影响，假设是， 这种活动引起支持记忆长期储存的大脑区域的变化。 拟议的研究表征了大脑之间传输的神经信号的性质 在获得后的不同时间支持记忆的区域，以及在这些区域上起作用的规则。 这些神经信号来实现记忆从一个大脑区域到另一个大脑区域的稳定转移。

PROJECT SUMMARY Vision is an active sense, with eye movements powerfully shaping the acquisition of visual information about the world. This project investigates how motor learning adjusts the neural circuitry controlling eye movements, to maintain the accuracy of eye movements over short and long time scales. The specific focus of the research is to understand how oculomotor learning, i.e., improvement of the accuracy of eye movements through experience, is transferred from short-term to long-term storage. This consolidation process occurs, not only for motor skills like eye movements, but is a general feature of learning and memory systems. Some memories, including oculomotor memories, are transformed during the time after the initial acquisition of the memory, in a way that renders older, consolidated memories independent of brain areas that are critical for newer memories. This process, known as systems consolidation, is thought to depend on activity of neurons in the brain area initially critical for the memory, and the hypothesis is that this activity induces changes in the brain area(s) supporting long-term storage of the memory. The proposed research characterizes the nature of the neural signals transmitted between brain areas supporting memory at different times after their acquisition, and the rules that operate on those neural signals to implement stable transfer of a memory from one brain area to another.