Studies are proposed to improve understanding of the structure, organization, and function of mammalian memory systems and the nature of memory disorders. The work is organized as 6 separate topics: 1) the organization of declarative memory; the hippocampus; 2) the organization of declarative memory; the medial temporal lobe; 3) memory, awareness, and measures of eye movements; 4) conjoint fMRI studies and lesion studies; 5) classical eyeblink conditioning; 6) studies with rodents, which will complement the studies in humans. Salient among the proposed plans is a novel direction of research for this laboratory to determine to what extent and how eye movements (e.g., as one scans a recently encountered scene) might reveal experience-dependent effects. What kind of declarative or non-declarative memory is indexed by eye movements? Also salient among the proposed plans is a program of study of the rat hippocampus, perirhinal cortex, and postrhinal cortex (and also the caudate nucleus), which is intended to address a number of longstanding issues that arise from the tradition of human neuropsychological studies. Studies are proposed of discrimination learning, remote spatial memory, and visual recognition memory, which are intended to address a number of long-standing issues. Another salient part of the proposed plans are studies intended to improve the interpretational power of fMRI, which on its own provides correlation data. Specifically, fMRI studies of hippocampus and medial temporal lobe are proposed in which the identical experimental design used in fMRI will also be used (outside the scanner) with amnesic study patients who have damage limited to the hippocampal region. A key component of the work is the availability of amnesic study patients, whose lesions have been described in considerable anatomical and quantitative detail. Up to 7 patients are available whose damage is limited to the hippocampal region, and 2 others (E.P. and G.P.) are of interest because they have large medial temporal lobe lesions and virtually no capacity for declarative memory. A second key component of the work is the close conceptual relationship between the rodent program and the work with humans.
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