Time-Place Learning, Circadian Rhythms, and Memory

动物往往会把一天中的时间和地点联系起来：狗在我们通常下班前几分钟在我们家门口迎接我们;孩子们要求在他们最喜欢的节目时间看电视。我的研究计划旨在了解动物，包括人类，如何学习时空的变化以及时间（特别是昼夜节律）信息在学习和记忆中的作用。为了理解动物如何学习在空间和时间上可预测变化的事件，我使用了一种称为时间-地点学习（TPL）的范式。在大鼠中，TPL表现为大鼠在上午学习到一个位置，在下午学习到另一个位置，以获得食物奖励或避免厌恶刺激。我还成功地修改了这个任务，使其适用于儿童。 我打算通过这项拟议的工作实现三个主要目标。首先，了解光、食物和认知任务所携带的振荡器如何相互作用，以提供可靠的昼夜节律信息，这些信息可用于TPL以及更广泛的学习和记忆。第二，描述TPL任务的食欲（主要用于大鼠）和厌恶（主要用于小鼠）版本之间的相似性和差异。为了利用小鼠和大鼠的神经心理学技术，我们必须更好地了解这些物种和任务之间的相似性和差异。第三，将TPL作为一种独立于言语能力研究儿童时间感发展的方法。 本提案中描述的实验将允许开发一个全面的框架，概述昼夜节律信息在学习和记忆中的作用。我假设时间信息在学习和记忆中是如此重要，以至于系统中已经建立了冗余，以便总是可以获得准确的昼夜节律信息。例如，如果动物知道光的信息是不可靠的，他们将使用恒定的用餐时间来跟踪时间。昼夜节律紊乱对记忆的不利影响在轮班工作者和那些经历时差的人中被注意到。了解各种振荡器如何相互作用，以及额外振荡器的存在是否可以减弱昼夜节律紊乱的有害影响，对于帮助昼夜节律紊乱的患者将是有价值的。虽然有相当多的研究已经研究了动物对一天中时间信息的使用，但缺乏对人类在这一主题上的研究。这在很大程度上是由于混淆与词汇能力。对人类日常TPL的研究提供了一种创新的方法来研究独立于时间词汇的一天中的时间理解。

Animals tend to associate time of day with places: dogs greet us at our door minutes before our usual arrival time from work; children ask to watch television at the time of their favourite show. My research program seeks to understand how animals, including humans, learn about spatiotemporal regularities and the role of temporal (specifically, circadian) information in learning and memory. To understand how animals learn about events that vary predictably in space and time, I use a paradigm known as Time-Place Learning (TPL). In rats, TPL is demonstrated when rats learn to go to one location in morning sessions and a different location in afternoon sessions for a food reward or to avoid an aversive stimulus. I have also successfully modified this task for use in children. I intend to accomplish three primary goals with this proposed work. First, to understand how oscillators entrained by light, food, and cognitive tasks interact to provide reliable circadian information that can be used in TPL and learning and memory more generally. Second, to characterize similarities and differences between appetitive (used mostly in rats) and aversive (used mostly in mice) versions of TPL tasks. To take advantage of the neuropsychological techniques in both mice and rats, it is imperative that we better understand the similarities and differences between these species and tasks. Third, to use TPL as a method to study the development of children's sense of time of day, separate from verbal ability. The experiments described in this proposal will allow the development of a comprehensive framework outlining the role of circadian information in learning and memory. I hypothesize that temporal information is so important in learning and memory that redundancies have been built into the system so that accurate circadian information is always available. For example, if animals learn that light information is unreliable, they will use constant meal times to keep track of time day. The adverse effects of circadian rhythm disruption on memory are noted in shift workers and those experiencing jet lag. Knowledge of how various oscillators interact and whether the presence of additional oscillators may attenuate the deleterious effects of a disrupted circadian rhythm will be valuable in assisting those with circadian rhythm disruptions. While considerable research has examined animal's use of time of day information, research with humans on this topic is lacking. This is largely due to confounds with vocabulary ability. The study of daily TPL in humans allows an innovative method to study time of day understanding that is independent of temporal vocabulary.