Professor Richard Morris, F.Med.Sci, F.R.S.E., F.R.S

Department of Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh
Email: chair-neuro@ed.ac.uk
Web: click here

Research interests are Behavioural neuroscience; studies of hippocampal function; action of glutamate and NMDA antagonists on hippocampal mechanisms. Studies of spatial and episodic memory.

Overview of research: The hippocampal formation (entorhinal cortex, dentate gyrus, hippocampus and subicular complex) have long been thought to play a role in certain forms of memory. But what are these types of memory? And what neural mechanisms are engaged by this group of structures to encode, store, consolidate and retrieve information? I and my colleagues in the Hippocampal Research Group are attempting to answer these questions using a combination of behavioural, lesion, neuropharmacological and electrophysiological techniques.
The group is primarily supported by an MRC Programme Grant (1997-2002), an MRC Innovation Award and grants from the Cunningham Trust, EU Framework V and the Volkswagen Foundation. We are presently organized into four project groups that are exploring 4 main lines of research:

• Animal models of episodic-like memory and its neural basis.
• The synaptic tagging hypothesis of protein synthesis-dependent long term potentiation.
• Systems-level memory consolidation and hippocampal/neocortical interactions.
• Animal models of neurodegenerative disease, with a particular focus on develop novel behavioural tasks to conduct longitudinal studies.

Recent innovations and findings: We have recently developed a new behavioural task that enables us to study memory recall (rather than recognition) of 1-trial paired associate learning by rats. Our focus just now is to understand the neural basis of this performance (papers in preparation). We are continuing our efforts to study the paradoxical induction of protein synthesis dependent LTP during its inhibition using 2-pathway 'tagging' experiments in brain slices in vitro.

Our work on memory consolidation uses the innovative technique of chronic reversible inactivation of brain structures. For example, we have explored the effects of 'switching off' the hippocampus for 7 days, using an AMPA antagonist, and then allowing it to return to normal. We have evidence that a memory impairment occurs when this is done after a period of learning but prior to retention, even though the drug is never present at a time when behavioural training or testing is conducted.

Our studies on age-related changes in memory function, include the development of novel tasks to study changes in memory function, using transgenic animals, in both cross-sectional and longitudinal experimental designs. Part of this work is in collaboration with Elan Pharmaceuticals.