Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences (PBS) assistant professor Dr. Ehren Newman studies circuitry in the brain, particularly the circuitry that is associated with the making of stories and the retrieval of memories. Newman’s background as a computational neuroscientist enables him to bring a plethora of new insight into his current field of systems cognitive psychology.
Memory is a complex process with multiple facets. “We don’t remember everything that happens to us with equal probability,” he observes. “Instead, we have fragmented memories of things of varying lengths.” So, how do we choose which memories to store and later recall? Newman uses a combination of computational modeling and experimental work in rats to provide a holistic view of this problem. The Newman lab explores “how various pieces of neural tissue work together at the right time and in the right order to actually give you a memory.” This research, he believes, will ultimately lead to a better understanding of human mental health conditions associated with memory distortion, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia. Learning about the circuit-based mechanisms of memory will conceivably help in the diagnoses, treatment, and in potentially developing a cure for these diseases. (more…)