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Admission to this internship program is by application only and is at the discretion of the individual research scientists - space is limited. The program is open to all undergraduates at Rutgers and NJIT. Specific course of skill prerequisites will vary by instructor.
For more information, contact Connie Sadaka
at 973-353-1080 x 3294 |
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Research Opportunities: Mark Gluck
Research Overview -
During the second half of this century, an overwhelming body of research in neurobiology, psychology, and medicine has pointed to the hippocampus, a small structure located deep within the center of our brains, as playing a crucial role in learning and memory, although a precise understanding of this role remains tantalizingly elusive. Research in our own laboratory during the current decade has drawn upon the methods of neuroscience, psychology, and computer science to help us better understand the hippocampus and its importance to both animal and human memory
As a preliminary introduction to this work, we will begin by focusing on five specific questions which have motivated our research. These questions, and a brief preview of our answers to them, are as follows.
QUESTION 1: What does the hippocampus do? We view the hippocampal region as an information gateway during the learning process, determining what information about the world is to be sent to memory, and how this information is to be encoded and stored by other regions in the brain. The hippocampal region adapts this coding to the needs of the individual, and we will explain here, in broad terms, how we think it is done.
QUESTION 2: What do animal studies tell us about the hippocampus? The basic structure of the hippocampus, and its relationship to other brain regions, is fundamentally the same in all mammals, allowing carefully crafted animal experiments to provide useful clues to human hippocampal function. In particular, experimental studies of learning in animals who have had their hippocampal regions surgically removed, inform and support our views of hippocampal function in humans. We also describe other informative animal experiments, including disruption of the hippocampus or interruption of the delivery of essential neuromodulators such as acetylcholine, looking for further clues to hippocampal function. Another series of experiments, using newly refined surgical techniques, leads us to conclude that some processes previously thought to be carried out within the hippocampus are actually performed by neighboring structures.
QUESTION 3: What do our studies of memory-impaired humans reveal about the hippocampus? Our studies of human learning and memory compare performance of normal humans with those who have memory impairments due to hippocampal region damage from stroke, trauma, or Alzheimers Dementia. Some of these studies are carried out in our lab at Rutgers University, while others are done in collaboration with colleagues in Boston, Chicago, San Diego, and Salt Lake City. Many of these experiments are motivated by and resemble our animal studies, and often come to similar conclusions, reinforcing our belief in the similarity of hippocampal function among mammals.
and biological studies of learning? Like computer models for weather prediction, neural network models are tools for understanding how multiple simultaneous small-scale interactions among physical elements can produce large-scale changes in system behavior. In using these models to build conceptual bridges between brain and behavior, we have taken a psychological perspective as our starting point. This contrasts with other more neuroscience-oriented approaches which begin with details of neurons and brain circuits and then seek to relate these biological details to observable learning and memory behaviors. Our approach, however, begins by exploiting the rich tradition within psychology of mathematical theories of learning and generalization. Extending these theories to more complex models of information processing in the brain, we have been able to study, and often predict, how simple neural elements might combine to produce learning and memory behaviors.
QUESTION 5: What are the potential clinical applications of our theory of hippocampal-region function? From a clinical perspective, we believe that the distinction between disruption and removal of the hippocampus may be especially important for understanding the consequences of different types of naturally occuring disorders which damage the human hippocampal region and lead to varieties of memory impairments. We expect the results of certain behavioral tests, developed through our modelling, to indicate when patients are likely to have damage in one or another specific area of the hippocampal region. We also see implications of our work for understanding the successes, and limitations, of current cholinergic therapies for age-related memory disorders. With our colleagues at the N.Y.U. Aging and Dementia Center in New York City, we are using our models and studies of amnesia to develop a battery of behavioral tests for early detection of Alzheimers Dementia, before these patients suffer from dramatic functional deficits. In other work with colleagues at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, we are exploring how our theories of learning and memory might lead to novel cognitive rehabilitation methods for patients with memory impairments due to hippocampal-region damage.
More Information -
Webpage:
Mark Gluck |
