The Hippocampal System and Relational (Declarative) Memory Processes

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的总体目标是增强我们对陈述性记忆的关系性质的理解，它对海马和相关内侧颞叶（MTL）结构的依赖，以及它在支持人类表现的各个方面的作用。本研究将神经心理学、眼动、ERP和功能磁共振成像研究结合起来，采用聚合方法，解决一系列具体的理论驱动的主张和数据启发的问题，这些问题涉及关系记忆处理的性质、范围和时间过程。它还测试了关于海马体与其他MTL记忆结构的不同作用的批判性观点。有六个具体目标：(1)表明海马体主要参与各种关系的关系记忆绑定，包括空间、非空间共现和时间顺序关系，这些关系超出了对事物本身的记忆；(2)虽然海马体在支持有意识回忆中起着关键作用，并可能参与新颖性的检测或加工，但即使在控制项目新颖性的情况下，海马体也支持独立于有意识回忆的关系记忆；(3)海马体主要参与知觉上不同物体之间关系的记忆，但不参与物体内部特征的记忆；(4)为了表明，尽管海马体参与了各种关系的记忆形成，但它（仅）对于任意的、偶然的关系的记忆是必要的，而对于非任意的、可衍生的关系的记忆则不是必要的；(5)表明即使在最短的滞后或延迟，即即使在工作记忆的时间尺度上，海马体对关系记忆也是至关重要的；(6)考察关系记忆加工各方面的时间进程。由海马体调节的记忆系统支持一种特殊形式的记忆，这种记忆是对日常生活中事件和需求的记忆的基础，同时，这种特殊形式的记忆特别容易受到记忆功能障碍的影响，比如失忆症，阿尔茨海默病，甚至在正常衰老的过程中。此外，海马体不仅与这些记忆丧失有关，还与精神分裂症和抑郁症有关。更好地了解这一关键系统将具有重要意义。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of the proposed research is to enhance our understanding of the relational nature of declarative memory, its dependence on the hippocampus and associated medial temporal-lobe (MTL) structures, and its role in supporting various aspects of human performance. The proposed work combines neuropsychological, eye movement, ERP, and fMRI studies, in a converging methods approach, to address a set of specific theory-driven claims and data-inspired questions about the nature, scope, and time course of relational memory processing. It also tests critical ideas about differential roles played by hippocampus vs other MTL memory structures. There are six specific aims: (1) To show that the hippocampus is centrally involved in relational memory binding of all manner of relations, including spatial, non-spatial co-occurrence, and temporal-sequential relations, above and beyond memory for the items themselves; (2) To show that although it plays a critical role in supporting conscious recollection and may participate in the detection or processing of novelty, the hippocampus supports relational memory, independent of conscious recollection, and even when item novelty is controlled for; (3) To show that the hippocampus is centrally involved in memory for relations among perceptually distinct objects, but not among features within objects; (4) To show that although it is involved in the formation of memory for all manner of relations, the hippocampus is necessary (only) for memory for arbitrary, accidental relations, not for non-arbitrary, derivable relations; (5) To show that the hippocampus is critical for relational memory even at the shortest lags or delays, i.e., even on the timescale of working memory; and (6) To examine the time course of aspects of relational memory processing. The memory system mediated by the hippocampus supports the particular form of memory that underlies remembering of the events and demands of everyday life, and, at the same time, the particular form of memory that is especially vulnerable to memory dysfunction in amnesia, in Alzheimer's disease, and even in the course of normal aging. Moreover, the hippocampus has been implicated not only in these instances of memory loss, but also in schizophrenia and depression. A better understanding of this critical system will have great significance.