Multimedia Gallery
Brain Research (Image 1)
Brain Research (Image 1)
A laboratory rat sits in front of electronic equipment used to record signals from electrodes that will be implanted in the animal's brain.
In one series of experiments, the electrodes are placed in a region called the hippocampus, an area that is known to contribute to learning, memory and to spatial representations. In another series of experiments, electrodes are implanted into a region called the striatum, which is involved in action selection and representation of rewarding stimuli. By understanding how such information is encoded in the rodent brain, scientists can gain insight into how similar concepts are represented in our own brains.
This work was part of a National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program award (grant DGE 99-87588) to the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint project of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh (PITT). The principal investigator was David S. Touretzky (Carnegie Mellon) and the co-principal investigator was Walter Schneider (PITT). The photos were taken in the laboratory of professor William Skaggs, then at the University of Pittsburgh, with whom Touretzky was collaborating. [See Related Image.] (Date of Image: 2000)
Credit: David S. Touretzky, Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University
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