Jeffery Kate J
Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience and Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
Brain Neurosci Adv. 2018 Nov 15;2:2398212818810686. doi: 10.1177/2398212818810686. eCollection 2018 Jan-Dec.
Spatial memory has fascinated psychologists ever since the discipline began, but a series of findings beginning in the middle of last century propelled its study into the domain of neuroscience and helped bring about the cognitive revolution in psychology. Starting with the discovery that the hippocampus plays a central role in memory, particularly spatial memory, studies of the mammalian hippocampus and related regions over the latter half of the century slowly uncovered an extensive neural system involved in processing place, head direction, objects, speed and other spatially informative parameters. Meanwhile, the concurrent discovery of hippocampal synaptic plasticity allowed theoreticians and experimentalists to collaborate in linking spatial perception and memory, and genetic techniques developed towards the end of the century opened the door to circuit dissections of these processes. Building on these discoveries, spatial cognition and episodic memory may be the first cognitive competences understood across all levels from molecules to behaviour.
自心理学这门学科诞生以来，空间记忆就一直吸引着心理学家。但从上世纪中叶开始的一系列研究结果，将其研究推进到了神经科学领域，并推动了心理学的认知革命。从发现海马体在记忆，尤其是空间记忆中起核心作用开始，本世纪后半叶对哺乳动物海马体及相关区域的研究，逐渐揭示出一个广泛的神经系统，该系统涉及处理位置、头部方向、物体、速度及其他空间信息参数。与此同时，海马体突触可塑性的同时发现，使得理论家和实验家能够合作，将空间感知与记忆联系起来，而本世纪末发展起来的基因技术，为剖析这些过程的神经回路打开了大门。基于这些发现，空间认知和情景记忆可能是第一个从分子到行为等各个层面都被理解的认知能力。
