ETHANOL AND SINGLE UNIT CORRELATES OF MEMORY

酒精使用会导致各种行为、认知和联想 可能产生不良社会后果的功能障碍。神经基础 酒精对工作记忆等联想过程的损害 都不是很清楚，但可能涉及海马体。这个 拟议的项目旨在确定乙醇对环境的影响 记忆相关的海马神经元活动及其机制的探讨 假设乙醇的记忆损伤作用涉及脑电活动中断 海马体的信息处理能力。这些实验 应用新开发的模拟认知的动物模型 在人体上测试的过程和高容量的生理数据 采集系统。复数结合性的同时评价 在这个方案中，突起和海马神经元活动代表了一个 理解认知的神经基础的新途径 与酒精使用相关的功能障碍。 根据初步数据，大鼠海马神经元参与了 工作记忆任务的存储组件(例如，延迟，序列， 准确性)。通过建立特定动物的助记关联 一个基准期，然后服用低剂量的乙醇， 乙醇对记忆和单单位活动的影响可以是 同时评估。低剂量乙醇扰乱大鼠的神经活动 内侧隔区(MSA)通过GABA能机制。MSA提供了 对海马体的主要输入，因此如果中断可能会干扰 与信息处理有关的海马体电路和损伤 工作记忆。这一假说是通过直接微量输注 作用于GABA-A受体进入MSA的药物 记录了海马区单位活动的助记相关性。数据 从这些研究中将确定MSA与 乙醇对海马区功能的认知损害。

Ethanol use leads to a variety of behavioral, cognitive and associative dysfunctions that can have adverse social consequences. The neural basis for ethanol's impairment of associative processes such as working memory are not well understood, but probably involve the hippocampus. The proposed project aims to determine the effect of ethanol on memory-related hippocampal neuronal activity and to explore the hypothesis that ethanol's memory-impairing effects involve disruption of information processing capabilities of the hippocampus. The experiments apply newly developed animal models that closely mimic cognitive processes tested in humans and a high capacity physiological data acquisition system. The simultaneous assessment of complex associative processes and hippocampal neuronal activity in this proposal represent a new approach for understanding the neural basis of the cognitive dysfunction associated with ethanol use. Based on preliminary data, hippocampal neurons in the rat are engaged in the memory components of the working memory task (eg., delay, sequence, accuracy). By establishing mnemonic correlates for a given animal during a baseline period, and then administering low doses of ethanol, the effect of ethanol on both memory and single unit activity can be simultaneously assess. Low doses of ethanol disrupt neural activity in the medial septal area (MSA) via a GABAergic mechanism. The MSA provides a major input to the hippocampus, and thus if disrupted could interfere with information processing in the hippocampal circuitry and impair working memory. This hypothesis is tested using direct microinfusion of drugs that act on the GABA-A receptor into the MSA in rats from which mnemonic correlates of hippocampal unit activity are recorded. The data from these studies will determine the interaction of the MSA with cognitive impairments of hippocampal function by ethanol.