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CATEGORIES:Cambridge Neuroscience Seminar 2008 - Nature and N
 urture
SUMMARY:Predisposition\, early learning and memory: An ana
 lysis of neural mechanisms - Prof Sir Gabriel Horn
 \, Sub-department of Animal Behaviour\, Department
  of Zoology
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20080418T163000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20080418T173000
UID:TALK11694AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/11694
DESCRIPTION:The notion that memory consists of a trace left in
  the brain by a past\, learned experience goes bac
 k several hundred years\, yet the effort to charac
 terise properties of the putative trace continues.
  I shall review some of the progress that has been
  made in this effort through a study of visual imp
 rinting in the domestic chick. The young chick lea
 rns to recognise and form a filial attachment to i
 ts mother or to a surrogate mother\, which may be 
 a conspicuous artificial object. An advantage of s
 tudying imprinting is that a visually inexperience
 d animal may learn the features of the first objec
 t to which it is exposed\; so the putative trace i
 s inscribed in a nervous system in which there are
  no previous inscriptions of learned visual experi
 ences. Evidence will be presented that a localised
  area (the ‘IMM”) of the cerebral hemispheres stor
 es information acquired through imprinting. The IM
 M is a polysensory region receiving inputs from th
 e hippocampus and the avian equivalent of the mamm
 alian amygdala. I shall describe some of the cellu
 lar and molecular changes that occur in the region
  after imprinting\, focussing on the neurophysiolo
 gical changes\, and the role of sleep in stabilizi
 ng them. Some of these changes were quite surprisi
 ng. \nChicks have a predisposition to approach obj
 ects resembling conspecifics. This predisposition 
 may guide them to one individual conspecific\, usu
 ally their mother\, whose features they learn. The
  IMM is necessary for this learning to occur\, but
  not for the predisposition\, which can be manipul
 ated experimentally.
LOCATION:Physiology Lecture Theatre
CONTACT:Hannah Critchlow
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