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Identifying the building blocks of episodic memory: how the hippocampus parses boundless experience into discrete events

Objective

Life provides us with a continuous stream of information that ends up being organized in long-term memory as distinct events. How does this occur? Leading theories posit that surprising occurrences (when prediction of the immediate future fails) are interpreted by the system as event boundaries that segment ongoing experience. Will any type of surprise induce such segmentation? Moreover, how are these segments then laid down in memory as discrete units? The proposed research addresses these key issues in a two phase study, combining fMRI of healthy individuals with a neuropsychological study of amnesic patients, and using tailored film clips designed to dissociate between distinct forms of prediction error (PE) – low-level PE (salient perceptual changes) and high-level PE (explicit expectancy of an upcoming change). We hypothesize that the key region in this process may be the hippocampus, a region strongly linked to formation of episodic memory. Combining a 7T fMRI study (enabling distinction between hippocampal subfields) with a study of patients with focal hippocampal lesions will enable us to elucidate the nature and necessity of hippocampal involvement in segmentation. The significance of this study lays first in its potential to illuminate how real-life events are registered to memory, a process which is likely to differ significantly from the encoding of brief, simple stimuli that have been employed previously. The importance of studying encoding of complex events has recently received increasing recognition, yet this is still only at its infancy, with very few studies employing this approach. Combining the complementary expertise of the researcher and the host, the proposed research aims to identify what constitutes an event boundary in mnemonic processing. Through future collaborations, this has the potential to lead to applicable interventions for improving normal memory and ameliorating mnemonic disorders.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2015

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Coordinator

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 103 563,29
Address
TRINITY LANE THE OLD SCHOOLS
CB2 1TN Cambridge
United Kingdom

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Region
East of England East Anglia Cambridgeshire CC
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 103 563,29

Participants (1)

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