倫敦大學的研究人員稱,，之前關于人類大腦通過不同機制形成長期記憶和短期記憶的理論可能不正確,。
神經(jīng)生物學家對失憶癥患者進行研究，由于失憶癥是由于大腦顳葉處海馬體損傷引起,，這類患者長時記憶能力喪失,，但在不受干擾的情況下，仍可以在短時間內(nèi)記住電話號碼,，因此,，研究人員一直認為海馬體只支持長時記憶而不支持短時記憶。
課題組對“海馬體雙側(cè)硬化顳葉癲癇('temporal lobe epilepsy with bilateral hippocampal sclerosis)”患者進行研究,，該疾病是癲癇病中的一種,，能導致患者大腦海馬體功能受到損害。研究人員要求這些患者回憶一些描繪普通場景的圖片,，如房間中的桌椅擺設等,，研究人員利用腦磁描記法(magnetoencephalography，MEG)記錄患者在回憶圖片時大腦的活動,。
研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn),，患者在60分鐘后就很難記住圖片的內(nèi)容，而在回憶圖片的細節(jié)時,，連5秒鐘間隔都記不住,。通過MEG分析，研究人員認為這可能是因為短時記憶時需要大腦中多個區(qū)域協(xié)調(diào)運作,，而當海馬體受損后,，會影響到這種協(xié)調(diào)性。研究人員猜測,，在大腦內(nèi)可能存在兩種短期記憶系統(tǒng),，一種記憶功能的發(fā)揮與海馬體無關，當長期記憶受損時也能正常工作,，另外一種則與海馬體有關,，海馬體損傷將導致長時記憶和短時記憶能力同時喪失。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
PNAS November 11, 2009, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0905792106
MEG demonstrates a supra-additive response to facial and vocal emotion in the right superior temporal sulcus
Cindy C. Hagana,b,1, Will Woodsb, Sam Johnsonb, Andrew J. Calderc, Gary G. R. Greena,b and Andrew W. Younga,b
aDepartment of Psychology, University of York, Heslington YO10 5DD, United Kingdom;
bYork Neuroimaging Centre, University of York, The Biocentre, York Science Park, Heslington YO10 5DG, United Kingdom; and
cMRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, United Kingdom
An influential neural model of face perception suggests that the posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) is sensitive to those aspects of faces that produce transient visual changes, including facial expression. Other researchers note that recognition of expression involves multiple sensory modalities and suggest that the STS also may respond to crossmodal facial signals that change transiently. Indeed, many studies of audiovisual (AV) speech perception show STS involvement in AV speech integration. Here we examine whether these findings extend to AV emotion. We used magnetoencephalography to measure the neural responses of participants as they viewed and heard emotionally congruent fear and minimally congruent neutral face and voice stimuli. We demonstrate significant supra-additive responses (i.e., where AV > [unimodal auditory + unimodal visual]) in the posterior STS within the first 250 ms for emotionally congruent AV stimuli. These findings show a role for the STS in processing crossmodal emotive signals.
