Neurobiological Analyses of Plasticity: Learning and Memory
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The long-term goal of Dr. Thompson's research is to understand how the          mammalian brain codes, stores, and retrieves memories.  This has proved         to be one of the most complex problems in the fields of neuroscience and        psychology.  It is also one of the most important.  Over the course of          evolution, biological organisms have developed two ways of storing              information.  One is the familiar genetic code embedded in the DNA; the         other, no less important, is the ability to store acquired information          and experience in the brain.                                                                                                                                    In order to understand the mechanisms of memory storage, it is necessary        to identify the specific circuitry in the brain required to store a             given type of memory.  Dr. Thompson has selected a basic form of                associative learning shared equally by humans and other mammals,                classical conditioning of discrete behavioral responses learned to deal         with aversive events.  An example of such conditioning is learning to           close the eyelid in response to a tone (conditional stimulus, or CS)            that signals the occurrence of a puff of air on the eye (unconditional          stimulus, or US).  Dr. Thompson and his colleagues have discovered that         very discrete regions of the cerebellum are essential for this basic            form of learning.  They have also succeeded in identifying most of the          essential brain circuitry involved in this basic form of associative            learning.                                                                                                                                                       Dr. Thompson and his colleagues will use several neurophysiological             methods and behavioral training procedures to (1) complete the                  identification of the essential auditory CS pathway, (2) determine              whether or not memory traces are formed in this pathway before it               reaches the cerebellum, (3) characterize the patterns of neuronal               response in the essential US pathway and in the essential conditional-          response pathway, (4) determine the exact locations where memory traces         are formed, (5) begin analysis of the mechanism of memory-trace                 formation, (6) determine if the essential cerebellar circuit can mediate        the "cognitive" behavioral phenomenon of "blocking," and (7) explore how        higher brain structures (cerebral cortex, hippocampus) modulate the             essential cerebellar memory-trace circuit.                                                                                                                      In addition to understanding basic mechanisms of memory storage, Dr.            Thompson's work offers the promise of understanding how motor skills are        coded and learned.  The potential practical applications range from             treatment of learning disabilities to enhancement of skilled human              performance to the development of an entirely new approach to the               problem of control of movement in robotics.
{'FirstName': 'Richard', 'LastName': 'Thompson', 'PI_MID_INIT': 'F', 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Richard F Thompson', 'EmailAddress': 'thompson@neuro.usc.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000433683', 'StartDate': '08/15/1987', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'University of Southern California', 'CityName': 'LOS ANGELES', 'ZipCode': '90033', 'PhoneNumber': '2137407762', 'StreetAddress': '3720 S FLOWER ST FL 3', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'California', 'StateCode': 'CA', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '34', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'CA34', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'G88KLJR3KYT5', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': None}
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[{'Code': '116000', 'Text': 'IBN ANIMAL BEHAVIOR'}, {'Code': '116100', 'Text': 'NEUROBIOLO OF LEARNING & MEMOR'}, {'Code': '116200', 'Text': 'COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE'}, {'Code': '119100', 'Text': 'BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE'}]
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