8
THE BULLETIN
Thomas Grabowski, Director of the UW
Alzheimer's Research Center, works to
improve the potential of functional brain
imaging to diagnose early Alzheimer
disease.
Photo credit: Elizabeth Myers
Research at
the UW Will
Improve How
Clinicians Help
Those with
Memory Loss
By Genevieve Wanucha, SM
In the lab next door, researchers watch a thin yellow line zigzag
across a computer screen with a loud crackling sound. “That’s
the sound of a neuron firing an action potential,” says grad-
uate student Seth Koenig, who is recording the activity of single
neurons in the monkey’s brain via a hair-thin electrode implanted
into the medial temporal lobe. A camera setup tracks Giuseppe’s
eye movements.
Along with four other monkeys trained to play various computer
games, Giuseppe is helping researchers figure out how the primate
brain forms memories—and offering clues to interventions for
the memory impairments of Alzheimer’s disease in humans at
the same time.
Gaming the memory system
Humans and monkeys have very similar brain anatomies, making
the primate brain a valuable model for human neurobiology. We
also share the ability to perform very complex tasks. In fact, this
macaque monkey can play a more difficult version of this game.
He enters the same green field and discovers it’s been cleared
of bananas. There’s a reward only if he can navigate back to the
spot where a banana was on his previous pass; when he returns
to the same spot, the banana will reappear.
Giuseppe sits in a small room,
joystick in hand, playing a video
game. He zooms through a grassy
field, foraging for big yellow
bananas. Banking left, he speeds
along a stone wall and captures
two. A sweet treat rolls down
a tube into his mouth, and he
munches on his reward. Giuseppe,
a monkey, is a research
participant in the Buffalo Lab at
the University of Washington.
