Award details

Olfactory memory and its neural representation

Reference	S09565
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Eric Keverne
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Keith Kendrick
Institution	University of Cambridge
Department	Zoology
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	157,189
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/04/1998
End date	31/10/2001
Duration	42 months

Abstract

In the last 10 years cognitive neuroscience has revealed multiple forms of memory distributed throughout the brain. To determine how a specific memory system is constructed, those brain regions which process sensory information that address the memory must be dissociated from those mediating motor responses generated as a result of it. Sheep form an olfactory memory that allows them to selectively recognise their own lambs while rejecting strange ones. We have used this natural and robust model to show that memory formation involves the primary processing region for smell, the olfactory bulb, and that one of its tertiary projection sites, the orbitofrontal cortex, mediates rejection behaviour but not memory formation. The present studies aim to use 'in vivo' sampling and pathways linking the orbitofrontal cortex to the basolateral amygdala in rejection. The involvement of different neurotransmitter systems will be investigated first by sampling changes in their release in these brain regions, and then by observing the functional effects of specific receptor agonists or antagonists.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search