How We Remember: Brain Mechanisms Of Episodic Memory

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Episodic memory proves essential for daily function, allowing us to remember where we parked the car, what time we walked the dog, or what a friend said earlier. In How We Remember, Michael Hasselmo draws on recent developments in neuroscience to present a new model describing the brain mechanisms for encoding and remembering such episodes as spatiotemporal trajectories. He reviews physiological breakthroughs on the regions implicated in episodic memory, including the discovery of grid cells, the cellular mechanisms of persistent spiking and resonant frequency, and the topographic coding of space and time. These discoveries inspire a theory for understanding the encoding and retrieval of episodic memory not just as discrete snapshots but as a dynamic replay of spatiotemporal trajectories, allowing us to "retrace our steps" to recover a memory. On the behavioral level, Hasselmo emphasizes the capacity to encode and retrieve spatiotemporal trajectories from personal experience, including the time and location of individual events. On the biological level, he focuses on the dynamical properties of neurons and networks in the brain regions mediating episodic memory, addressing the role of neural oscillations and the effect of drugs on episodic memory. In the main text of the book, he presents the model in narrative form, accessible to scholars and advanced undergraduates in many fields. In the appendix, he presents the material in a more quantitative style, providing mathematical descriptions appropriate for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in neuroscience or engineering.

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How We Remember How We Remember Brain Mechanisms of Episodic Memory Michael E. Hasselmo The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hasselmo, Michael E. How we remember : brain mechanisms of episodic memory / Michael E. Hasselmo. p.; cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-01635-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Memory—Physiological aspects. 2. Recollection (Psychology)—Physiological aspects. 3. Brain—Physiology. I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Mental Recall—physiology. 2. Brain—physiology. WL 102] QP406.H37 2012 612.8’2—dc22 2011008719 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Chantal, Simone, Nicholas, and the rest of my family Contents Preface ix 1 Behavioral Dynamics of Episodic Memory 1 2 Neural Dynamics of Episodic Memory 3 Coding of Space and Time for Episodic Memory 4 Encoding and Retrieval of Episodic Trajectories 5 Linking Events and Episodes 6 Drug Effects on the Dynamics of Encoding and Retrieval 7 Dynamics of Memory-Guided Behavior 31 83 121 139 Appendix: Mathematical Models of Memory References 297 Author Index 341 Subject Index 349 243 211 173