Exploring the content of human medial temporal lobe representations and their contributions to cognition

记忆是日常生活的核心部分，在塑造我们的个人身份方面起着至关重要的作用。因此，了解大脑如何处理记忆，以及为什么我们的记忆会失败，是神经科学的一个基本目标。一种由来已久的理论是，一组大脑结构，统称为内侧颞叶(MTL)，只负责处理长期记忆，有效地充当了一个专门的长期记忆系统。然而，最近的研究对这一观点提出了挑战，并证明在某些情况下，MTL还涉及其他认知领域，包括知觉、短期记忆、想象和决策。目前的研究建议旨在考虑到这些调查结果，并制定一个理论框架，通过该框架可以理解MTL看似广泛的功能。具体地说，这项工作将建立在MTL的代表性观点的基础上，这表明最好根据MTL所代表的信息类型而不是它所负责的流程类型来理解MTL。一种建议是，不同的MTL结构负责表示不同类型的信息，如空间场景和物体，无论我们何时利用这些信息，无论认知过程是什么，如记忆、感知或想象，都会调用这些表示。通过对神经学健康的参与者和因MTL损伤而有记忆问题的个人进行的行为和功能神经成像研究的结合，这项建议将通过以下方式发展代表性观点：(1)提供对MTL表征的内容的新见解，MTL表征中包含什么对象和场景信息，我们能检查这些表征是什么样子吗？(2)揭示MTL表征如何促进记忆，特别是它们在解决记忆干扰中的作用，MTL表征如何帮助我们区分相似的记忆？(3)了解关于时间的信息是如何被纳入MTL表征中的，MTL表征如何使我们能够记住过去事件发生的时间和时间？最后(4)阐明MTL表征在想象中的作用，MTL表征如何促进我们的想象力？这项工作的发现将修正关于MTL功能的传统概念，并在这样做的过程中，改变我们对大脑中记忆处理以及记忆和其他认知过程之间相互作用的理解。这些知识将对加拿大和国际上对大脑和认知之间关系感兴趣的研究产生影响，从长远来看，也可能对记忆障碍是一种症状的医学状况产生影响。

Memory is a central part of everyday life and plays a critical role in shaping our personal identity. It is an essential goal of neuroscience, therefore, to understand how the brain processes memories and why our memories can fail. One long-standing theory is that a group of brain structures, collectively named the medial temporal lobe (MTL), are responsible for processing long-term memory only, effectively serving as a dedicated long-term memory system'. Recent research has, however, challenged this idea, and demonstrated that, in some circumstances, the MTL is also involved in other cognitive domains, including perception, short-term memory, imagination, and decision-making. The current research proposal aims to take account of these findings and develop a theoretical framework by which the MTL's seemingly wide range of functions can be understood. Specifically, this work will build on a representational view of the MTL, which suggests that it is best to understand the MTL according to the type of information that it represents rather than the type of processes that it is responsible for. One suggestion is that different MTL structures are responsible for representing different types of information such as spatial scenes and objects, and that these representations are called upon whenever we make use of this information, irrespective of the cognitive process such as memory, perception, or imagination. Using a combination of behavioural and functional neuroimaging studies in neurologically healthy participants and individuals with memory problems due to MTL damage, this proposal will develop the representational view by: (1) Providing new insight into the content of MTL representations what object and scene information is contained in MTL representations and can we examine what these representations look like?; (2) Revealing how MTL representations contribute to memory, in particular, their role in resolving memory interference how do MTL representations help us to differentiate similar memories?; (3) Understanding how information about time is incorporated into MTL representations how do MTL representations enable us to remember when and for how long a past event happened?; and finally (4) Shedding light on the role of MTL representations in imagination how do MTL representations contribute to our imagination? The findings from this work will revise traditional conceptions of what the MTL does and in doing so, change our understanding of memory processing in the brain, and the interaction between memory and other cognitive processes. This knowledge will have an impact on research that is interested in the relationship between the brain and cognition in Canada and internationally, and in the long-term, may also speak to medical conditions in which memory impairment is a symptom.