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How are long-term memories acquired and stored in the brain? How
can a diverse range of stimuli trigger a perception and memory recall? These are
just a few of the fundamental questions asked by D.O. Hebb who, in 1948,
proposed the model above to address them. Arrows represent groups of neurons
organized in a closed "cell assembly" which was initially created and then
maintained by repeated correlations in firing patterns. The reverberating
nature of activity across this assembly, indicated in red, is the neural
representation of a memory. The meandering nature of activity propagation helps
preserve the memory even when any single cell group (arrow) is refractory to
stimulation, and the entire assembly can be activated (recalled) by stimuli
impinging on any one of the cell groups. Based on activity patterns, cell
assemblies can be added to or pruned back. Click on the video to see a
simulation of this process.
About
the Neuroscience & Behavior Program
Neuroscience is a discipline that probes one of the last biological frontiers
in understanding ourselves. It asks fundamental questions about how the brain
and nervous system work in the expression of behavior. As such, the field takes
on a clear interdisciplinary character: All scientific levels of organization
(behavioral, developmental, molecular, cellular and systems) contribute to our
understanding of the nervous system. Neuroscience has been a field of
particularly active growth and progress for the past two decades, and it is
certain to be an area where important and exciting developments will continue to
occur. At Wesleyan, the neurosciences are represented by the teaching and
research activities of faculty members in the biology and psychology departments. The NS&B curriculum is
both comprehensive and provides diverse approaches to learning.
Through lecture/seminars, lab-based methods courses and hands-on
research experience, students are afforded a rich educational
experience. Unique among schools of comparative size, Wesleyan has
small but active graduate
programs leading to MA and
Ph.D. degrees. This attribute, together with the high success rate
of faculty in obtaining research grant support, further enhances
the education of undergraduates by providing graduate student role
models, more research opportunities, and access to state of the
art laboratories. The mission of the NS&B Program is to
provide the foundation for a variety of career
options in science,
medicine, and private industry.
Contact :
John Kirn, Chair
Neuroscience & Behavior Program
c/o Biology Department
Wesleyan University
Middletown CT 06457-0170
Tel: 860-685-3494
FAX: 860-685-3279
email jrkirn@wesleyan.edu
This page is maintained by:
Marjorie Fitzgibbons
Biology Department
Wesleyan University
Middletown CT 06459-0170.
Please contact mfitzgibbons@wesleyan.edu
to submit comments about this web site. |
