We use electrodes placed in the medial temporal lobe of patients with epilepsy to measure activity of single neurons or population activity of a group of neurons and relate the measured activity directly to the patient’s reported experience.
One of the main goals of neuroscience is to understand how the brain performs higher cognitive functions and how they are disturbed in cognitive disorders. For several reasons our approach is vital to reach this goal.
First, we aim to translate animal findings and insights into an enhanced description of the mechanisms underlying cognitive functions in humans. We will test whether the hypotheses that have emerged from animal studies can account for psychological phenomena in humans.
Second, we will record neural activity in the area first affected in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. For this reason the project can potentially contribute to the development of more appropriate animal models for human brain diseases.
In the future, such knowledge may increase the likelihood of finding a treatment that can stop or prevent the development of memory disorders.