Psychology

Hippocampus Is the Brain’s Storyteller

People love stories. We find it easier to remember events when they are part of an overarching narrative. But in real life, the chapters of a story don’t follow smoothly one from another. Other things happen in between. A new brain imaging study from the Center for Neuroscience at the University of California, Davis, shows that the hippocampus is the brain’s storyteller, connecting separate, distant events into a single narrative. The work is published Sept. 29 in Current Biology.

Center for Neuroscience Faculty Discusses 'Did this Memory Really Happen?' on Every Little Thing Podcast

Charan Ranganath, Ph.D., UC Davis professor of psychology at the Center for Neuroscience, was a guest on the Every Little Thing podcast episode Memory Game: Did This Meal Really Happen? on May 10, 2021. Dr. Ranganath spoke with hosts Annette Heist and Jorge Just about how we form memories and the tricky nature of deciding about whether a memory is "true." Listen to the full episode here.

Professor Charan Ranganath Featured on NPR's Life Kit Episode: You're Probably Not As Open-Minded As You Think. Here's How To Practice

NPR's Life Kit host Rose Eveleth interviewed UC Davis neuroscientist Charan Ranganath, a psychology professor and Director of the Memory and Plasticity Program at the Center for Neuroscience for the podcast episode You're Probably Not As Open-Minded As You Think. Here's How to Practice on May 3, 2021.  Dr. Ranganath discussed why being calm and curious helps us be more open-minded. Read or listen to the full story here.

Manipulating memory with light

Just look into the light: not quite, but researchers at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience and Department of Psychology have used light to erase specific memories in mice, and proved a basic theory of how different parts of the brain work together to retrieve episodic memories. The work was published Oct. 9 in the journal Neuron. 

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