Abstraction of temporal memory in the human cortex

Episodic memories are made as we go about our daily life: what event has happened, with whom, where and when. The proposed project will target mechanisms of episodic memory retrieval in life-like conditions using advanced neural data analytical tools.
The main notion is that in real-life conditions different episodes/events are not independent, but are connected in a meaningful manner. For example, if a friend sends an SMS about meeting at a train station (event 1) and then sees their friend in front of the station (event 2), these two events are coupled. One could think about many other different types of “event-coupling” (e.g., different stages/missions in a video-game). We aim to formulate formal ways of representing these links, which would then allow us to search for the corresponding neural correlates in the brain. Specifically, it will include triggering episodes in the real-life of the participants using mobile phone technology and studying the interaction between different kinds of temporal-order memory. The research methodology will include advanced functional imaging methods, electroencephalogram (EEG), as well as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

Faculty Supervisor:

Adrianna Mendrek

Student:

Partner:

East China Normal University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

Bishop's University

Program: