Understanding the neural basis of recognition memory in the rat: A functional analysis

识别记忆对日常生活至关重要。它涉及到我们判断之前是否遇到过刺激的能力。为了做出这些判断，我们能够使用一系列不同的记忆过程。例如，我们可以做出一种判断，如果刺激是全新的，即以前从未见过；如果刺激是熟悉的，我们可以做出不同类型的判断，这取决于我们是最近看到的，还是很久以前看到的；最后，我们可以做出第三种类型的识别记忆判断基于我们是否在特定的环境，地点或背景下看到了刺激。这个提议的假设是，这些不同的记忆过程是由大脑的不同区域控制的，周围皮层，前额叶皮层和海马体，可能在一个网络中运作。实验的目的首先是了解这些大脑区域中哪些参与了哪种类型的记忆过程，其次是调查这些大脑区域是否在记忆系统中合作。此外，我们计划研究神经递质谷氨酸在处理正常识别记忆功能所需的信息过程中，对大脑特定区域的细胞之间的交流是否重要。

Recognition memory is essential to every day life. It involves our ability to judge whether or not we have encountered a stimulus previously. To make these judgements we are able to use a range of different memory processes. For example, we can make one type of judgements if a stimulus is completely new, i.e. never been seen before; we can make a different type of judgement if the stimulus is familiar, depending on whether we have seen it quite recently, or a long time ago; finally and we can make a third type of recognition memory judgements based on whether we have seen a stimulus within a particular environment, location or context. The hypothesis of this proposal is that these different memory processes are controlled by different regions of the brain, the perirhinal cortex, the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, potentially operating in a network. The aim of the experiments is firstly to understand which of these brain regions involved in which type of memory process, and secondly to investigate whether these brain regions are co-operating within a memory system. In addition we plan to investigate whether the neurotransmitter glutamate is important for communication between cells in the particular regions of the brain during the processing of information necessary for normal recognition memory function.