Category: News

Buzz About the Temporal Discrimination Paper!

photo for adult study

Our recent paper in Hippocampus on temporal discrimination in young and older adults recently got a great write up on Dr. Ryan Hunsaker’s blog, Why Haven’t They Done That Yet? From the post: Roberts and colleagues developed a task to test temporal pattern separation (as well as primacy and recency) in a cohort of young…

New paper: Stimulus repetition and memory interference.

Stock photo for target recognition study

New paper by Zach Reagh in Learning and Memory. Here he is with the paper pony! Reagh, Z.M. & Yassa, M.A. (2014). Repetition strengthens target recognition but impairs similar lure discrimination: evidence for trace competition. Learning & Memory DOI doi/10.1101/lm.034546.114. Abstract: Most theories of memory assume that representations are strengthened with repetition. We recently proposed…

Zach Reagh awarded Holcomb Scholarship

Congratulations to Zach Reagh for being awarded the coveted Dr. William F. Holcomb Scholarship by the School of Biological Sciences! This award supports a graduate student in biomedical sciences and is in the amount of $2000. Zach is pictured here at the award ceremony with Dr. Mike Mulligan, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, on the left and Dr. Frank LaFerla, Dean of…

New paper: Temporal discrimination in older adults

New paper by graduate student Jared Roberts. Here he is with the paper pony! Roberts J.M., Ly, M., Murray, E., Yassa, M.A. (2014) Temporal discrimination deficits as a function of lag interference in older adults. Hippocampus DOI:10.1002/hipo.22303 Abstract A vital component of episodic memory is the ability to determine the temporal order of remembered events. Although it has been…

New paper: Pattern separation and emotional information

Stock brain photo for pattern separation study

New paper by graduate student Stephanie Leal. Here she is holding the paper pony! Leal, S.L., Tighe, S.K., Jones, C.K., Yassa, M.A. (2014) Pattern separation of emotional information in  hippocampal dentate and CA3.Hippocampus DOI:10.1002/hipo.22298. Abstract: Emotional arousal, mediated by the amygdala, is known to modulate episodic memories stored by the hippocampus, a region involved in pattern separation (the…

Jared Roberts awarded Haycock Memorial Travel Award

Jared and Craig Stark

Congratulations to Jared Roberts who was just awarded the John Haycock Memorial Travel Award. The award was established to honor John W. Haycock; friend and mentor to many, and an influential scientist. John’s family has established a memorial graduate student award named for John in the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at UC Irvine….

Zach Reagh presents his research to Congress!

Graduate student Zach Reagh presented his NSF-supported research on Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers to members of Congress at Capitol Hill as part of an effort to increase awareness of the science supported by the National Science Foundation….

New paper: emotion and interference

New paper by Stephanie Leal just published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. Leal, S.L., Tighe, S.K., Yassa, M.A. (2014) Asymmetric effects of emotion on mnemonic interference. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory DOI:10.1016/j.nlm.2014.02.013 Abstract Emotional experiences can strengthen memories so that they can be used to guide future behavior. Emotional arousal, mediated by the amygdala,…

News and Views: Ground Zero in Alzheimer’s Disease, Nature Neuroscience

Stock photo for Alzheimer's study

Our News and Views piece covering the fantastic work by Khan and colleagues in Nature Neuroscience is out in the current issue. Abstract: New findings in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease patients and mouse models of the disease suggest that it is the lateral, rather than the medial, entorhinal cortex that is most susceptible to tau pathology early…

Caffeine stimulates memory consolidation: a possible BDNF link

Coffee mug representation of caffeine and memory

Serra Favila and Brice Kuhl write in Nature Neuroscience News and Views about a possible link between caffeine’s enhancement of memory consolidation and a BDNF-mediated mechanism. Very nice summary and review of our paper. Read their N&V piece here.  …