Neuronal circuitry for recognition memory of object and place in rodent models

The Department of Biomedical Sciences, UMN Medical School, Duluth Campus, is pleased to announce that a new article by Drs. Owen Y. Chao, PhD, Assistant Professor, and Yi-Mei (Amy) Yang, PhD, Associate Professor will be published in the journal of Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews in October 2022.

This article provides a comprehensive review of current studies on recognition memory using rodent models, with an in-depth discussion of the molecular basis and functional circuits for such a fundamental cognitive function.

It is essential to remember different objects, their locations, and object-location associations in our daily life. But how does the brain respond to these stimuli? The authors thus reviewed literature on the neuronal circuitry of spontaneous object exploration paradigms in which animals naturally explore objects with novel properties more than familiar ones, indicating recognition memory. The “default” system of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus is critical, while it is assisted by multiple cerebral cortices, thalamic and hypothalamic nuclei. These circuits are further discovered by advanced techniques termed optogenetics and chemogenetics, methods to identify and control certain neurons that are connected within a specific neuronal pathway. The molecular basis and functional circuits for recognition memory of objects and place are then discussed.

Citation:
Owen Y. Chao, Susanne Nikolaus, Yi-Mei Yang, Joseph P. Huston. Neuronal circuitry for recognition memory of object and place in rodent models. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Volume 141, 2022, 104855, ISSN 0149 7634, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104855. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976342200344X)