Episode 52: The Brain's Systems for Learning and Memory
Early in his career, Dr. Lynn Nadel helped to reveal the role of the brain's hippocampus in encoding a "cognitive map" of where are bodies are in space. Very quickly, he and his colleagues came to realize that there are many different memory systems. One, called episodic memory, relies on that cognitive map, while others, such as semantic memory, do not. His ongoing research continues to demonstrate exciting aspects of the creation, storage, and retrieval of episodic memories. Because the hippocampus continues to develop into early childhood, it is particularly susceptible to deleterious impacts of stress and of genetic variations, such as occur to produce Down Syndrome. Dr. Nadel's work aims to help us understand how such changes in the hippocampus affect memory, and how they might someday be alleviated. In this episode: Lynn Nadel, Ph.D. Regents' Professor in Psychology; Leslie Tolbert, Ph. D. Regents' Professor in the UofA's Neuroscience Department