Memory

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The various expressions of memory

The Memory Center (CEM), which is a part of the Brain Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (InsCer), is the most cited research center in Latin America, and its coordinator, Professor Iván Izquierdo, is the most-cited researcher in Latin America (more than 16,000 citations).

The CEM studies the basic mechanisms of the extinction of learned fear, the modulation of extinction learning by neurotransmitters and by other behaviors, the treatment of cognitive deficit induced by postnatal maternal deprivation, and the role of histaminergic neurotransmission in the brain.

All these topics are innovative and have broad clinical applications. Extinction is widely used in the therapy of posttraumatic stress and other fear memories. Its modulation is important to regulate the application of extinction (often called exposure therapy) to these disturbances. Treatment of the cognitive disorders caused by post-natal maternal deprivation is socially relevant. Histaminergic neurotransmission, plays a fundamental role in the regulation of many forms of memory. This was originally proposed by Izquierdo in 1986.

The findings of International journals, such as Science, PNAS, and Nature, have published the results from these studies, which also have been presented in lectures at several scientific institutions, symposiums, and congresses in Brazil and abroad.

The team at CEM is formed by the researchers Jociane Myskiw, Fernando Benetti, and Cristiane Furini, in addition to undergraduate and graduate students of PUCRS in the fields of medicine and biology. The CEM is part of the National Institute of Translational Neuroscience (INNT) from the network of National Institutes created by the National Research Council (CNPq), which encompasses Brazil’s main research structures. The CEM is associated with the groups directed by Esper Cavalheiro (Unifesp, São Paulo) and Vilma Martins (Hospital A.C.Camargo, São Paulo) and by Roberto Lent, Fernando Garcia de Mello, Vivaldo Moura Neto, and Sérgio Ferreira (UFRJ). The CEM also does work in collaboration with the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Florence (Italy) and the Robarts Institute of the University if Western Ontario (Canada).