ETHANOL AND SINGLE UNIT CORRELATES OF MEMORY

乙醇的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。 的神经基础 乙醇对工作记忆等关联过程的损害 还不太清楚，但可能涉及海马体。 的 拟议的项目旨在确定乙醇对 记忆相关的海马神经元活动，并探讨 假设乙醇的记忆损害作用涉及破坏 海马体的信息处理能力。 实验 应用新开发的动物模型， 在人类中测试的过程和高容量的生理数据 采集系统 复合联想记忆的同时评价 过程和海马神经元的活动在这个建议代表了一个 理解认知神经基础的新方法 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 工作记忆任务的记忆成分（例如，延迟，序列， 准确度）。 通过建立记忆相关的一个给定的动物， 基线期，然后给予低剂量的乙醇， 乙醇对记忆和单个单位活动影响， 同时评估。 低剂量的乙醇会破坏神经活动， 内侧隔区（MSA）通过GABA能机制。 MSA提供 这是海马体的主要输入，因此，如果受到干扰， 与海马电路中的信息处理有关， 工作记忆 这一假设是用直接微量输注 药物作用于大鼠的GABA-A受体进入MSA， 记录海马单元活动的记忆相关性。 数据 这些研究将确定MSA与 乙醇对海马功能的认知损害。

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.