ICLM Journal Club
This Week - 1 June 2018 (9:30 a.m., Gonda 2nd Floor Conference Room)
Speaker: Nicco Reggente
Title: The Method of Loci in the modern age: Insights from Virtual reality and neuroimaging
Abstract: The Method of Loci (MoL), also commonly referred to as the Memory Palace technique, has long been appreciated as a highly effective and easily implementable mnemonic, with most users reporting it to be helpful and engaging. Indeed, empirical studies spanning several decades have reliably substantiated the centuries of anecdotal praise for the MoL’s effectiveness in bolstering mnemonic recall, with some observing a seven-fold increase in ordered recall over a rote rehearsal method. Despite this historic and growing popularity, little is known about which aspects of the Method of Loci are most potent in providing its users with enhanced mnemonic recall. In this talk, I will present a virtual rendition of the MoL which allowed for the technique to be offloaded from its traditional medium (mental imagery) into an operationalized paradigm with quantifiable metrics. I will discuss our behavioral and neuroimaging results which suggest that the binding of information to a spatial scaffolding during encoding, and contextual reinstatement during recall, underly the effectiveness of the MoL.
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:
Shonali Dhingra & Helen Motanis
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)
v) Walt Babiec (O'Dell Lab) (2013-2014)
vi) Walt Babiec (O'Dell Lab) & Helen Motanis (Buonomano Lab) (2014-2017)
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