HIPPOCAMPAL AND NEOCORTICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO RECOGNITION

双加工理论或再认理论认为，参与者之所以能认出一个刺激物，是因为1）这个刺激物看起来很熟悉，或者2）他们选择了与这个刺激物有关的具体细节;最近的神经心理学证据表明，熟悉和回忆是由不同的大脑结构（分别是鼻腔新皮层和海马体）控制的。 这项研究的目标是：1）使用神经网络模型来解释新皮层如何实现熟悉性，以及海马如何实现回忆; 2）测试这些模型对正常受试者和海马局灶性损伤受试者的识别性能的预测。 第一个具体目标是使用模拟和实验来建立新皮层和海马对识别的贡献之间的关键定性差异（例如，我将探讨增加诱饵与研究项目的相似性对新皮层驱动的识别性能的损害比对大脑皮层驱动的识别性能的损害更大。 第二个具体目标是整合新皮层和海马模型，并使用组合模型：1）当两个过程都有助于识别时，精确地解释识别数据;以及2）探索熟悉和回忆之间的关系（例如，他们是独立的）。 现存的正式识别模型并没有与潜在的神经生物学联系起来，因此，拟议的研究构成了识别记忆建模的一个重要步骤。 更实际的是，这项研究将提高我们对脑损伤患者保留记忆能力的理解;反过来，这将有利于这些患者的康复。

Dual-process theories or recognition posit that participants can recognize a stimulus as having been studied earlier because 1) the stimulus seems familiar, or 2) they recollect specific details pertaining to that stimulus; recent neuropsychological evidence suggests that familiarity and recollection are subserved by distinct brain structures (rhinal neocortex and the hippocampus, respectively). The goal of the proposed research is to: 1) use neural network models to explain how neocortex implements familiarity, and how the hippocampus implements recollection; and 2) test these models predictions regarding recognition performance in normal subjects and subjects with focal hippocampal damage. The first specific aim is to establish, using simulations and experiments, key qualitative differences between neocortical and hippocampal contributions to recognition (e.g., I will explore the idea that increasing the similarity of lures to studied items impairs neocortically-driven recognition performance more that hippocampally-driven recognition performance). The second specific aim is to integrate the neocortical and hippocampal models, and use the combined model to: 1) precisely account for recognition data when both processes are contributing to recognition; and 2) explore the relationship between familiarity and recollection (e.g., are they independent). Extant formal models of recognition do not make contact with the underlying neurobiology as such, the proposed research constitutes a major step forward in recognition memory modeling. More practically, this research will improve our understanding of preserved memory capacities in brain-damaged patients; this, in turn, should benefit rehabilitation of these patients.