2017-04-18 12:08:01

Prelude

Today's Topics

  • Learning and memory
    • Alzheimer's Disease
    • Hippocampus

Alzheimer's Disease (AD)

  • Chronic, neurodegenerative disease affecting ~5 M Americans
  • Cognitive dysfunction (memory loss, language difficulties, planning, coordination)
  • Psychiatric symptoms and behavioral disturbances
  • Difficulties with daily living
  • (Burns and Iliffe 2009)

AD progression

AD

AD

  • Treatments include
    • Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhbitors (e.g. Aricept)
    • Glutamatergic partial antagonists (e.g., Memantine)

New hope for treatment, (Kaufman et al. 2015)

Memory systems in the brain

Hippocampus

Hippocampus features

Hippocampus roles

Spatial precision of place cells

Human analogue – (Maguire et al. 2000)

(Maguire et al. 2000)

(Maguire et al. 2000)

Hippocampal volume in food-caching birds

Main points

  • Hippocampus "hub" in brain's storage of specific information about places, events, facts
  • Damage to hippocampus or medial temporal lobe (MTL) region can impair formation of new memories

Next time

  • Speed of nervous system conduction lab

References

Battaglia, Francesco P., Karim Benchenane, Anton Sirota, Cyriel M. A. Pennartz, and Sidney I. Wiener. 2011. “The Hippocampus: Hub of Brain Network Communication for Memory.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15 (7): 310–18. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2011.05.008.

Burns, Alistair, and Steve Iliffe. 2009. “Alzheimer’s Disease.” BMJ 338 (February): b158. doi:10.1136/bmj.b158.

Kaufman, Adam C., Santiago V. Salazar, Laura T. Haas, Jinhee Yang, Mikhail A. Kostylev, Amanda T. Jeng, Sophie A. Robinson, et al. 2015. “Fyn Inhibition Rescues Established Memory and Synapse Loss in Alzheimer Mice.” Annals of Neurology 77 (6): 953–71. doi:10.1002/ana.24394.

Kjelstrup, Kirsten Brun, Trygve Solstad, Vegard Heimly Brun, Torkel Hafting, Stefan Leutgeb, Menno P. Witter, Edvard I. Moser, and May-Britt Moser. 2008. “Finite Scale of Spatial Representation in the Hippocampus.” Science 321 (5885): 140–43. doi:10.1126/science.1157086.

Maguire, Eleanor A, David G Gadian, Ingrid S Johnsrude, Catriona D Good, John Ashburner, Richard SJ Frackowiak, and Christopher D Frith. 2000. “Navigation-Related Structural Change in the Hippocampi of Taxi Drivers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97 (8). National Acad Sciences: 4398–4403. doi:10.1073/pnas.070039597.

Sherry, David F., Anthony L. Vaccarino, Karen Buckenham, and Rachel S. Herz. 1989. “The Hippocampal Complex of Food-Storing Birds.” Brain, Behavior and Evolution 34 (5): 308–17. doi:10.1159/000116516.

Squire, Larry R. 2004. “Memory Systems of the Brain: A Brief History and Current Perspective.” Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Multiple Memory Systems, 82 (3): 171–77. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2004.06.005.