Upcoming Events
Joint Seminars in Neuroscience Lecture Series
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Neuroscience Research Building (NRB) 1st Floor Auditorium
"Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period for Learning and Memory Development"
Cristina Alberini, Ph.D. - Center for Neural Science
Abstract:
Infantile amnesia, the inability of adults to recollect early episodic memories, is associated with the rapid forgetting that occurs in early development. It has been suggested that infantile amnesia is due to the underdevelopment of the infant brain, resulting in an inability to consolidate memories, or to deficits in memory retrieval. On the other hand, early-life events, especially neglect or aversive experiences, greatly impact adult behavior and may predispose individuals to various psychopathologies. Thus, it is unclear how a brain that rapidly forgets, or is not yet able to form long-term memories, can exert such a long-lasting and important influence. I will discuss recent data from my laboratory indicating that the hippocampal memory system is highly responsive to experiences during infancy and recruits special biological mechanisms that may explain the paradox of infantile amnesia. These results lead us to propose that infantile amnesia reflects a developmental critical period during which the learning system is learning how to learn and remember.
125th UCLA Faculty Research Lecture
Date: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 at 3:00pm
Location: Schoenberg Auditorium
Speaker: Jack L. Feldman, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Neurobiology
