Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Department of Psychology
363 Hunter Laboratory
Tel: (401) 863-9208
Email: Rebecca_Burwell@Brown.edu
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For decades the hippocampus has been the focus of research on the neural basis of memory. Studies conducted over the last few years have provided evidence that cortical areas surrounding the hippocampus contribute to some forms of memory. Given the long-standing concept that the hippocampus serves a critical role in memory processes, the finding that some memory tasks are sensitive to lesions of these adjacent cortical regions, alone, has highlighted the need for close examination of the function of those adjacent structures. My research program uses neuroanatomical, experimental lesion, and electrophysiological approaches to examine the contribution of these regions, including the perirhinal, postrhinal/parahippocampal, and entorhinal cortices, to memory and to other higher cognitive functions. Among other approaches, we employ single unit recording in behaving animals to examine neuronal firing correlates of behavioral events in tasks that tap such functions as spatial memory, recognition memory, configuration of multiple stimuli, attentional processes, and the processing of context. These approaches are used to differentiate the function of these cortical regions from each other and from those of the hippocampus.

Burwell, R. D., & Agster, K. L. (2008). Anatomy of the Hippocampus and the Declarative memory system. In H. E. Eichenbaum (Ed.), Systems and Neuroscience (Vol. 4). In J.H. Byrne (Series Ed.) Learning and Memory ­ A Comprehensive Reference. London: Elsevier, in press.

Kerr KM, Agster KL, Furtak SC, Burwell RD. (2007) Functional neuroanatomy of the parahippocampal
region: The lateral and medial entorhinal areas.
Hippocampus. 2007, 17(9):709-722.

Theroux, S., Pereira, M., Casten, K.S., Burwell, R.D., Yeung, K.C., Sedivy, J.M., and Klysik, J.
(2007). Raf kinase inhibitory protein knockout
mice: Expression in the brain and olfaction deficit. Brain Research Bulletin. 71(6):559-67.

Furtak SC, Wei SM, Agster KL, Burwell RD. (2007) Functional neuroanatomy of the parahippocampal region in the rat: The perirhinal and postrhinal cortices.Hippocampus. 2007, 17(9):709-722.

Long, M. A., Jutras, M. J., Connors, B. W., & Burwell, R. D. (2005). Electrical synapses coordinate activity in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Nat Neurosci, 8(1), 61-66

Burwell, R. D., Bucci, D. J., Sanborn, M. R., & Jutras, M. J. (2004). Postrhinal and perirhinal contributions to remote memory. J Neurosci, 24(49), 11023-11028

Burwell, R. D., Saddoris, M. P., Bucci, D. J., & Wiig, K. J. (2004).
Corticohippocampal contributions to spatial and contextual learning. J Neurosci, 24:3826-36.

Bucci, D. J.,& Burwell, R. D. (2004). Deficits in attentional orienting following damage to the perirhinal or postrhinal cortices. Behav Neurosci. 118(5), 1117-1122.

Burwell, R. D., & Hafeman, D. (2003) Positional firing properties of postrhinal cortex neurons. Neuroscience, 119(2), 577-588.

Bucci, D. J., Saddoris, M. P., & Burwell, R. D. (2002). Contextual fear discrimination is impaired by damage to postrhinal or perirhinal cortex. Behavioral Neuroscience, 116(3), 479–488.

Rapp, P. R., Deroche, P. S., Mao, Y., & Burwell, R. D. (2002). Neuron Number in the Parahippocampal Region is Preserved in Aged Rats with Spatial Learning Deficits. Cereb Cortex, 12(11), 1171-1179.

Burwell, R. D. (2001) Perirhinal and postrhinal cortices in the rat: Borders and Cytoarchitecture. J. Comp. Neurol., 437:17-41.

Burwell, R. D. (2000). The parahippocampal region: Corticocortical connectivity. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 911, 25-42.

Bucci, D. J., & Burwell, R. D. (2000). Contributions of postrhinal and perirhinal cortex to contextual information processing. Behav. Neurosci., 25, 882-894.