DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The hallmark feature of episodic memory is the ability to link events with their temporal and situational contexts. This ability allows for memories to be truly autobiographical, and failures of episodic memory are signs of normal aging and neurodegenerative disease. The proposed research aims to illuminate the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying human episodic (contextually-mediated) memory through both computational modeling and the analysis of intracranial and scalp electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings taken as neurosurgical patients and healthy adults search their memory for recently studied material. Using a model-based approach coupled with multivariate pattern analysis applied to electrophysiological data our first aim is to elucidate the interacting roles f context and content information in episodic memory. We further seek to identify the anatomical substrates of content and context information in the process of memory formation, retrieval and reinstatement (Aim 2). Finally, we will carry out parallel invasive (intracranial EEG) and non-invasive (scalp EEG) studies to assess the viability of decoding neural signatures of episodic memory using non-invasive methods. This work will serve as an important bridge between the behavioral and neurobiological approaches to human memory, and will provide insights into the mechanisms of memory decline both in normal aging and in neurological disease.