Randy L. Buckner is interested in determining brain systems that support human memory and how these systems change during progressive dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Human memory arises from complementary brain systems that are modified by experience.
Certain memory systems support conscious recollection of prior episodes, such as the memory for a recently encountered face or a tune on the radio. Other memory systems operate below our awareness and facilitate implicit forms of learning, such as motor skill acquisition and priming of a response through repeated exposure. Our research program explores how these multiple forms of memory arise in the human brain and how they change during healthy aging and aging associated with dementia. To undertake these explorations, we conduct behavioral and functional brain imaging studies while human participants perform memory tasks. A series of interrelated questions drive our research.