DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIAL TEMPORAL LOBE FUNCTIONS

Emory University, Atlanta GA

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Abstract

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. This project is designed to investigate (a) the development of hippocampal and perirhinal corex functions in monkeys, (b) the long-term consequences of early insult to these brain areas on the maturation of memory processes and social bonds, and (c) the anatomical reorganization of other brain systems resulting from these early lesions as compared to adult lesions. In the current year, we have continued to study behaviorally trained monkeys that we have prepared with neonatal lesions of the hippocampus and their sham-operated controls as they are reaching adolescence and early adulthood. We have assessed their working memory abilities using three different memory tasks (session-unique DNMS, self-ordered and serial order tasks) and found profound deficit, suggestive of dysfunction in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We thus began a metabolic PET study to assess functioning of the DLPFC while the animals are performing the session-unique DNMS. We have also continued the training of animals that had received neonatal lesions of the perirhinal cortex and their controls in tasks measuring object and spatial recognition memory, social interactions and emotional reactivity as they become juveniles. Our primary motivation is the hope that, through such research, principles of the brain's response to damage can be established that will lead ultimately to the discovery of ways in which the effects of damage can be alleviated or even eliminated.