Olfactory cognition in mouse models of human disease

在我的实验室里，我们有兴趣了解大脑中的哪些变化与精神分裂症或阿尔茨海默氏症等疾病患者的学习和记忆缺陷有关。我们使用动物，即，大鼠和小鼠来研究这些疾病的过程。他们不是用图片和文字来了解世界，而是用气味来暗示。尽管如此，它们对气味的记忆能力和我们对图像的记忆能力一样强。 此外，它们大脑中与信息处理相关的部分与人类相当。我们在研究中使用“设计师”大鼠和小鼠。这些动物是经过基因或生物修饰的，具有模拟精神分裂症或阿尔茨海默病患者大脑的动物。我们已经证明，某些品系的老鼠比其他品系的老鼠更能记住信息，大多数老鼠在第一次学习如何解决同一个简单的任务后至少9个月才能记住如何解决这个问题。我们目前正在评估不同品系和年龄的雄性和雌性老鼠学习更困难的记忆问题的能力。最终，这项工作的结果可能会被用来帮助克服人类遇到的认知问题与这些疾病，以及提供一个更好的了解大脑是如何工作的。

In my lab, we are interested in understanding what changes in the brain are associated with the learning and memory deficits found in individuals with diseases such as schizophrenia or Alzheimer's dementia. We use animals, i.e., rats and mice, to study these disease processes. Rather than using pictures and words to learn about the world they use odour cues. Nonetheless, they are as good at remembering odours as we are at remembering images. Moreover, the parts of their brains that are associated with the processing of information are comparable to those of humans. We use "designer" rats and mice in our studies. These are animals that have been genetically or pharmacologically modified to have brains that model those of humans with schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease. We have already shown that some strains of mice are able to remember information better than others and that most mice remember how to solve the same simple task at least nine months after they first learned it. We are currently assessing the ability of male and female mice of different strains and ages to learn more difficult memory problems. Ultimately, the results of this work may be used to help overcome the cognitive problems encountered by humans with these disorders as well as provide a better understanding of how the brain works.