An intense and continuing debate about the nature of memory in the human brain was triggered by the discovery that amnesic patients, despite being unable to explicitly report a prior event, displayed changes in behavior due to that event. While behavioral research has illuminated many important aspects of this phenomenon, referred to as repetition priming, basic questions regarding brain mechanisms require functional brain imaging techniques. Recent developments in fMRI and its multimodal integration with EEG and MEG are beginning to provide sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to address questions about the neural basis of preserved priming in amnesia. The candidate, a Clinical Neuropsychologist with a published background in human EEG, is proposing a 5-year program of education, training and research focused on developing expertise in fMRI and MEG, their multimodal integration, and the application of these techniques to the study amnesia. Serving as a primary mentor, Dr. Mieke Verfaellie, Director of the Memory Disorders Research Center at Boston University, will provide her extensive research experience in the study of patients suffering non-progressive memory loss. As secondary mentors, Dr. Anders Dale (Associate Director, Massachusetts General Hospital NMR Center) and Dr. Eric Halgren (Director, MEG Core MGH-NMR Center) will contribute with expertise in the use and integration of fMRI, EEG and MEG as well as adding important access to the rapidly growing NMR research center at MGH. This unique team of mentors will provide the needed combination of expertise and resources for the candidate to carry out a 5-year program of research focused to address three specific aims. First, we propose to map the functional neuroanatomy of two forms of priming (with and without awareness of a priming stimulus) and determine the extent to which amnesics and normals recruit the same neural mechanisms. Secondly, we propose to examine the effect of time between events on priming, which we predict will affect amnesics and normals differentially. Finally, we will attempt to determine which neural processing events are crucial for priming to take place and how these relate to effects previously observed in neuroimaging studies of priming. These studies will integrate the training, education and research components of this proposal in order for the candidate to emerge as an independent and productive researcher with a unique set of methodological skills to apply towards the study of amnesia.
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