IBN-9511309 Jaffe The hippocampal formation is a region of the brain that is important for certain aspects of learning and memory. The goal of this project is to examine how an important component of the hippocampus, the CA3 region, might process, store and recall specific patterns of information. A computational model of the CA3 neural network will be used to test hypotheses. Specific parameters regarding the firing properties of inhibitory neurons and certain aspects of synaptic transmission will be obtained using state-of-the-art electrophysiological recording methods from neurons in hippocampal slices. The computer network will contain 1,000 to 10,0000 neurons based on published data and the experimental data from inhibitory neurons. A key feature of the network will be that excitatory connections between pyramidal neurons will potentiate or depress based on biophysical rules for synaptic potentiation and depression. The CA3 network will be trained with different patterns of input to test the following: 1) can the network can discriminate between input patterns, 2) can the network complete partially presented patterns, and 2) is information distributed across the network. This work will be important for our understanding of how this region of the hippocampus is involved in associative information storage.
