I have attached the guidelines that my professor sent out, in addition to 3 articles for you to choose from. I also attached chapter 3 lecture notes to give you an idea of the course.
Below I pasted the overview of the course;
I present this material in the form of a narrative that is organized into three stories. I begin with a brief introduction to some of the important historical foundations of the field and fundamental distinctions between psychological and neurobiological approaches to memory (Chapter 1). Most neurobiologists agree that to understand how memories are made we have to understand how experience modifies synapses. So, in this part of the story, Synaptic Basis of Memory, I focus on establishing principles of synaptic plasticity (Chapters 2-8). I introduce you to key concepts and methods (Chapters 2 and 3) and then organize the remainder of this section around the idea that synapses are strengthened in stages (trace generation, trace stabilization, trace consolidation, and trace maintenance) that depend on different cellular molecular events (Chapters 2-7). This section ends with a synthesis of the material that was covered (Chapter 8). The second story, Molecules and Memories, builds on these findings and principles and asks, how do we know if the cellular molecular events revealed by studying synapses in brain tissue are actually involved in converting behavioral experiences into memories? To do this I introduce some of the critical concepts and methodologies needed to relate memories to cellular events (Chapter 9). I then connect what we have learned about synaptic events in Chapters 2-8 to how memories are formed (Chapter 10) and consolidated (Chapter 11). I then ask, why are some experiences are better remembered than others (Chapter 12)? This allows me to introduce you to the memory modulation framework, which integrates brain functions with hormonal events occurring in the periphery—the adrenal hormones. The story then continues with a discussion of the neurobiology of forgetting and how the intrinsic processes that produce forgetting are opposed by intrinsic that prevent forgetting (Chapter 13). Synapses are plastic—they can be modified by experience. However, in the context of memories, synaptic changes are primarily important because they allow the strengthening of connections among collections of neurons (sometimes called ensembles or engrams) that represent behavioral experiences. This section also includes an introduction to exciting new develops that allow researchers to identify neurons that are members of engrams (Chapter 14). I end this section by discussing what happens to memories when they are retrieved. The theory of reconsolidation is introduced and leads us to the discovery that memories that have been retrieved can either be lost, strengthened, or integrated with new experiences. (Chapter 15). The third part of the story, Neural Systems and Memory, moves up to another level of analysis where the focus is on brain systems. The story is organized around a framework called the multiple memory systems view. Collections of different brain regions are organized into systems to capture different aspects of our daily experiences. For example, we have systems that (a) store the events of our lives (Chapters 16, 17, and 18), (b) allow us to acquire complex skills and adapt rapidly to the changes in environment (Chapter 19), and (c) allow us to learn to escape and avoid danger (Chapter 20). The final section of this course will describe some of these neural systems and how they are specialized to support different types of memory.
