Wednesday, November 25, 1998
Community Briefs
Study links memory to activity in area of brain
Some people can remember simple facts better than others because
the area of their brains involved in processing these memories is
more active at the time of learning, a UC Irvine study shows.
The study provides new insight into how long-term memory works
and confirms recent studies that provide the most detailed maps to
date of specific areas in the brain responsible for processing
memories.
The findings, which appear in the Nov. 24 Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, eventually could result in more
effective drugs and therapies to improve memory.
UCI College of Medicine researchers Dr. Michael Alkire, Richard
Haier and James Fallon, and Lawrence Cahill of UCI’s Center for the
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, found that a simple test of
long-term memory produced different levels of metabolic activity in
the brain, and that the activity levels predicted accurately how
well memories are stored. The researchers also found that most of
this activity took place in a section of the brain’s cerebral
cortex called the para-hippocampal gyrus. The para-hippocampal
gyrus is a part of the cerebral cortex located near the ear, and is
so named because it sits next to another area of the brain
important in memory, the hippocampus.
"This is one of the first studies to show that the amount of
brain activity in a particular area is related to how well the
memory is retained," Alkire said.
UC research institute names new director
Russell W. Rumberger, UC Santa Barbara professor of education,
has been appointed director of the UC Linguistic Minority Research
Institute. The UC LMRI, housed on the Santa Barbara campus,
promotes research on the academic achievements of students from
diverse linguistic backgrounds.
"It is a critical time in the state for educational issues that
concern linguistic minority students, what with the continuing
growth of their population and the recent passage of Proposition
227, which will dramatically alter how linguistic minority students
are being taught in the public schools," said Rumberger, who
succeeds Giorgio Perissinotto as director of the institute. "The
University of California is also making an unprecedented commitment
to outreach and the UC LMRI can play an important role in improving
outreach for language minority students am very excited by the
challenge of leading the UC LMRI at this time."
A faculty member at UCSB since 1987, Rumberger’s research
interests are: education and work; the education of disadvantaged
students, particularly school dropouts; and education policy. Among
his studies: the economic payoffs of schooling and on educational
requirements of work; on the causes and consequences of dropping
out of school; and on school performance, school segregation, and,
most recently, student mobility.
Lab director leaves Department of Energy
Tom Garcia, acting deputy laboratory director for business
administration and outreach, has announced he is leaving the
Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory to take a job
in the private sector.
"It was with deep disappointment and regret that I received
Tom’s announcement that he had decided to leave the lab," said Los
Alamos Director John Browne.
"I tried to convince him to stay because he was my choice to be
Deputy Director for Business Administration and Outreach. I had
offered him the job and the University of California Board of
Regents was slated to approve the salary Nov. 20.
"A person of Tom’s caliber and impressive record of success
attracts significant interest from the private sector,
unfortunately for us," Browne said.
Compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports.
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