Cognitive Functions of the Postrhinal Cortex

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

Memory for the context in which daily life events occur is a hallmark of episodic memory, but how and where context is represented in the brain is an open question. Evidence in multiple species suggests that postrhinal cortex (POR) is critically involved. The PI will study the role of neural circuits in the rodent POR in processing information about contexts. The guiding hypothesis is that POR is necessary for forming representations of specific contexts and for updating such representations when changes occur. What part of the brain notices, for example, when an object has been moved for one place to another in a familiar room? The PI has compelling new data showing that neurons in the POR do, indeed, represent object-place associations, and thus have all the information to signal changes in object location. The proposed studies will employ state of the art techniques in behaving rats to address questions about how context changes are represented in the brain. This work will impact memory research and neuroscience at large in several ways. For example, these studies will advance our understanding of the neural basis of context and visual information processing. In addition to the scientific impact, the proposal will contribute to increasing diversity in neuroscience by recruiting summer research rotation students from historically black colleges including Tougaloo College in Jackson, MS, Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, and Dillard University in New Orleans, LA.