Vision is an active sense, with eye movements powerfully shaping the acquisition of visual information about the world. This project investigates how motor learning adjusts the neural circuitry controlling eye movements, to maintain the accuracy of eye movements over short and long time scales. The specific focus of the research is to understand how oculomotor learning, i.e., improvement of the accuracy of eye movements through experience, is transferred from short-term to long-term storage. This consolidation process occurs, not only for motor skills like eye movements, but is a general feature of learning and memory systems. Some memories, including oculomotor memories, are transformed during the time after the initial acquisition of the memory, in a way that renders older, consolidated memories independent of brain areas that are critical for newer memories. This process, known as systems consolidation, is thought to depend on activity of neurons in the brain area initially critical for the memory, and the hypothesis is that this activity induces changes in the brain area(s) supporting long-term storage of the memory. The proposed research characterizes the nature of the neural signals transmitted between brain areas supporting memory at different times after their acquisition, and the rules that operate on those neural signals to implement stable transfer of a memory from one brain area to another.
Learning powerfully influences nearly all brain functions, from early sensory processing and control of movement, to cognition. Deficits in learning and memory present a serious challenge to individuals and society. This project will generate insights about the neural processes that transfer memories from short- to long-term storage.
