ICLM Journal Club
This Week
Tiffany Chow
Title: Neural Mechanisms of Real-World Episodic Memory Retrieval: Investigations using functional neuroimaging and wearable camera technology
The retrieval of everyday occurrences is a fundamental facet of memory. However, the neural correlates of episodic memory retrieval have typically been assessed with laboratory-based approaches that are not necessarily representative of how these processes occur for real-world events. These types of laboratory-based experimental paradigms may even elicit neural activation that differs from studies using more naturalistic approaches. To address this, wearable camera technology was used to document participants' lives and the resultant photographs were utilized as memory probes during fMRI scan sessions. Multivariate and univariate analyses revealed striking dissociations in the neural activation corresponding to the photographic source, pre-exposure, and temporal order of events. Multi-voxel pattern analyses were applied within networks associated with episodic memory retrieval and demonstrated the ability to robustly decode characteristics of photographic source and pre-exposure. Analyses also revealed an interaction between the networks' decoding capabilities. Moreover, brain activity in the hippocampus was interrogated for changes along the longitudinal axis, which demonstrated a gradation of differential activation for the memory processes examined in the experiment. These findings contribute to current understanding of episodic memory retrieval processes for events and experiences that occurred in the real world.
About Us
Introduction
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory (ICLM) is a multidisciplinary center of UCLA labs devoted to understanding the neural basis of learning and memory and its disorders. This will require a unified approach across different levels of analysis, including;
1. Elucidating the molecular cellular and systems mechanisms that allow neurons and synapses to undergo the long-term changes that ultimately correspond to 'neural memories'.
2. Understanding how functional dynamics and computations emerge from complex circuits of neurons, and how plasticity governs these processes.
3. Describing the neural systems in which different forms of learning and memory take place, and how these systems interact to ultimately generate behavior and cognition.
History of ICLM
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory formally LMP started in its current form in 1998, and has served as a platform for many interactions and collaborations within UCLA. A key event organized by the group is the weekly ICLM Journal Club. For more than 10 years, graduate students, postdocs, principal investigators, and invited speakers have presented on topics ranging from the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, through computational models of learning, to behavior and cognition. Dean Buonomano oversees the ICLM journal club with help of student/post doctoral organizers. For other events organized by ICLM go to http://www.iclm.ucla.edu/Events.html.
Current Organizers:
Walt Babiec (O'Dell Lab) & Helen Motanis (Buonomano Lab)
Current Faculty Advisor:
Past Organizers:
i) Anna Matynia(Aug 2004 - Jun 2008) (Silva Lab)
ii) Robert Brown (Aug 2008 - Jun 2009) (Balleine Lab)
iii) Balaji Jayaprakash (Aug 2008 - Nov 2011) (Silva Lab)
iv) Justin Shobe & Thomas Rogerson (Dec 2011 - June 2013) (Silva Lab)
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