Fractionating Prefrontal Contributions to Memory

描述（由申请人提供）：高阶认知关键取决于形成和检索事件持久记忆或情景长期记忆（LTM）的能力。前额叶皮层（PFC）被认为在实施引导LTM形成和检索的认知控制过程中起关键作用，并且前额叶皮层（PFC）在神经系统（例如，创伤性脑损伤）和精神病（例如，精神分裂症）疾病与LTM缺陷有关。研究澄清特定PFC子区域实施的认知控制过程的性质及其与LTM的关系，可以为此类疾病的新诊断和治疗方法提供相关基础。目前的项目将利用来自事件相关功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）和事件相关脑电位（ERP）实验的汇聚证据来测试从前额叶组织的新理论产生的预测。第一个具体的目标是指定不同的横向PFC区域如何有助于LTM的形成。四个事件相关的功能磁共振成像实验将测试的假设，PFC腹外侧区域调制LTM形成通过选择和维护目标相关的项目表示，而背外侧PFC区域通过形成和操纵的多个项目之间的关系是活跃的记忆。第二个具体目标是说明前PFC如何有助于LTM回收。我将检验这一假设，即前额叶皮层对于指定将用于做出记忆决定的信息类型至关重要。这一假设作出具体的预测的时间和功能特点的前PFC招聘期间检索。这一假设将对比竞争的帐户在三个功能磁共振成像和三个ERP的研究，将分别检查PFC活动的选择和维护的记忆决策标准，并在成功的记忆检索。这些研究的结果将使一个理论的发展，特征，认知和神经，由特定的前额叶区域，与记忆有关的过程。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Higher order cognition depends critically on the ability to form and retrieve lasting memories for events, or episodic long-term memory (LTM). The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is thought to play a critical role in the implementation of cognitive control processes that guide LTM formation and retrieval, and dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in neurological (e.g., traumatic brain injury) and psychiatric (e.g., schizophrenia) disorders has been linked to deficits in LTM. Research clarifying the nature of cognitive control processes implemented by specific PFC subregions and their relationship to LTM can provide a relevant foundation for new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to such conditions. The current project will utilize converging evidence from event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related brain potential (ERP) experiments to test predictions generated from a novel theory of prefrontal organization. The first specific aim is to specify how different lateral PFC regions contribute to LTM formation. Four event-related fMRI experiments will test the hypothesis that ventrolateral regions of PFC modulate LTM formation through the selection and maintenance of goal-relevant item representations, whereas dorsolateral PFC regions through the formation and manipulation of relations between multiple items that are active in memory. The second specific aim is to specify how anterior PFC contributes to LTM retrieval. I will test the hypothesis that anterior PFC is critical for specifying the kinds of information that will be used to make a memory decision. This hypothesis makes specific predictions about both the timing and the functional characteristics of anterior PFC recruitment during retrieval. This hypothesis will be contrasted against competing accounts in three fMRI and three ERP studies that will separately examine PFC activity during the selection and maintenance of memory decision criteria and during successful memory retrieval. Results from these studies will enable the development of a theory that characterizes, both cognitively and neurally, the processes implemented by specific prefrontal regions that relate to memory.