** NOTE ** This is an old page! Try the current Memory & Perception Group website **

Research

The research programme comprises four specific projects:

1. The cognitive and neural architecture of semantic memory and the Dementias Hodges, Patterson, Nestor, Kipps, Ahmed, Rowe, Hughes, Ghosh

We are trying to understand the structure of conceptual knowledge in the human brain, mainly by investigating the way in which this knowledge degrades in neurodegenerative disease. What reliable patterns emerge in such degradation with respect to different types of knowledge and different modalities of access to and output from central semantic memory? And which regions of structural and functional brain abnormalities are associated with these cognitive patterns?

2. Relationship between semantic memory and language, perception, and short-term memory Patterson, Hodges, Green

Traditional views of cognitive processing treat functions like visual perception, working memory and some aspects of language processing as quite independent of semantic memory. Our research programme on disorders of semantic memory enables us to ask whether these other functions do in fact operate normally when they can no longer interact with an intact system of conceptual knowledge.

3. The role of medial temporal lobe regions in human memory and perception Barense, K Taylor, Emery, Henson (in collaboration with Kim Graham)

This project asks whether different regions in the medial temporal lobe play distinct roles in human memory and perception, with a particular focus on how these areas might be specialised for object vs spatial processing.

4. The neural bases of conscious and unconscious memory Henson, J Taylor, Eckstein, Mouchlianitis, Horner

This project uses functional imaging (fMRI) and electrophysiological techniques (EEG/MEG) to investigate different forms of conscious memory (recollection and familiarity), and differences between conscious and unconscious memory (priming), in healthy volunteers. It also includes study of the relationship between priming and perception, concentrating on visual objects and faces.