The MRC Co-operative on Plasticity, Learning and Memory is a joint initiative by the Cardiff School of Biosciences and the School of Psychology. It comprises 12 members in the two Schools who use a combination of behavioural, systems, cellular and molecular techniques to understand how animals learn and remember.

Research by the Co-operative group is directed a question that lies at the heart of Neuroscience: How does memory work? This is essential for understanding why it doesn't work in disease processes such as Alzheimer's.

To answer these questions it will be important to know :

1) whether synaptic plasticity mechanisms are involved in learning and memory in the whole animal,

2) whether synaptic mechanisms vary from one brain region to the next

3) whether neural substrates can be found for the theoretical processes that have been identified by psychological theories of learning and memory.

The MRC Co-operative at Cardiff University brings together individuals with expertise in different areas of Neuroscience to address these questions using a multidisciplinary approach. We are currently funded from a variety of sources:

Funding

The MRC renewed the Co-operative for a further 5 years in 2003 and awarded funds of £520,000 to run essential operations in the co-operative. Co-operative members perform research that is funded by grants from the MRC (currently £5.62M) and other organizations (£1.89M) including the BBSRC and Welcome trust.

The co-operative was awarded £1.47M by the Welcome trust to fund laboratory space for "Creating models of health and disease".