Research Summary:
I am examining conditioning induced plasticity
as a function of age. Conditioning is one of the oldest forms of experimentally
induced learning, dating back to the now classic studies conducted
by Ivan Pavlov. Studying the physiology of digestion, Pavlov characterized
a phenomenon that revolutionized the study of learning and memory,
a phenomenon called classical conditioning. These initial observations
set the foundation for an explosion of experiments not only characterizing
the specific brain regions and neuronal processes involved, but leading
to the development of other forms of conditioning, such as operant,
delay, and trace. Since this initial work conducted by Pavlov, various
studies have characterized multiple brain regions involved in this
form of association learning; yet to date we know very little of this
form of learning in aged subjects.
It has been previously shown that
aged subjects can and sometimes do utilize alternate learning / retrieval
strategies (Hazlett et al., 1998; Krause et al., 2000; Schreursa et
al., 2001) compared to young subjects. Thus a memory for a learned
event in an aged subject may be stored in a different location, or
with a different neuronal pattern, compared to young subjects. The
focus of my research is to examine conditioning induced learning in
young and aged subjects, capitalizing upon the wealth of already published
data to determine what brain regions and forms of neuronal plasticity
to specifically focus upon.
For future directions I would like
to link the electrophysiological alterations I observe in both young
and aged conditioned subjects to anatomical and / or biochemical plasticity
in the brain. Alterations in electrophysiological neuronal properties
can be the result of various forms of neuronal modifications. To further
complicate the issue, studies have shown that learning can modulate
various neuronal properties, such as synapse number, synapse size,
synapse morphology, and receptor composition to name a few. Thus it
would seem that in order to fully understand the specific neuronal
alterations induced, one must have a multi-technique analysis of the
conditioning event. For future directions, I would like to elaborate
upon my electrophysiological observations, via multi-technique analyses,
to better understand the neuronal plasticity induced by conditioning
in young compared to aged subjects. For a copy of my recent CV please
click here.
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Last updated: Sunday, July 28, 2002
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