Abstract: Cells in the brain, called neurons, record our daily experience and events and store them as episodic memories. The life-long accumulation of episodic memories makes us who we are and decides what we do. Although how neurons make memory remains a mystery, great progress has been achieved in recent years. I will first introduce modern theories of memory, including the different processing stages and the neural circuits involved. Then I will describe our recent work on why sleep is important in stabilizing new memories into long-term ones and on why the neural circuits in patients with Alzheimer's disease cannot store new memories. Finally, I would like to point out a few major problems in the field and why computational scientist can play a key role in unraveling the mysteries of memory. My aim is to foster collaboration between neuroscientists and computational scientists and physicists alike.

 

报告人简介: 纪道云，1991年南开大学毕业，1996年获南开大学理论物理博士学位，2000年获Baylor College of Medicine (贝勒医学院) 神经科学博士学位。2001-2008年，Picower, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (麻省理工学院学习记忆中心) 博士后，2008年至今，任贝勒医学院分子和细胞学系、神经学系助理教授、博士生导师。现为美国神经学会、美国生理学会会员。1992 年获得程京理论物理奖，1999年获得日本RIKEN脑研究所年会报告奖。研究领域：学习记忆的神经机制，人脑与计算机的控制和接口，睡眠功能及梦的解析，老年痴呆症的记忆丧失原理及其电生理标志。

  

Date&Time: June 17, 2013 (Monday),15:00 -16:00
Location: 606 Conference Room