Arthur Paul Shimamura (June 26, 1954 – October 6, 2020) was a professor of psychology and faculty member of the

Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute The Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI) at the University of California, Berkeley was created in 1997, through a bequest from eight-time Wimbledon champion Helen Wills Moody, an alumna of UC Berkeley. History The Berkeley Neuroscience Cen ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. His research focused on the neural basis of

human memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

and

cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

. He received his BA in

experimental psychology Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...

from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

in 1977 and his PhD in cognitive psychology from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1982. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of

Larry Squire Larry Ryan Squire (born May 4, 1941) is a professor of psychiatry, neurosciences, and psychology at the University of California, San Diego, and a Senior Research Career Scientist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Diego. He is a leadin ...

, where he studied

amnesic Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...

patients. In 1989, Shimamura began his professorship at UC Berkeley. He has published over 100 scientific articles and chapters, was a founding member of the

Cognitive Neuroscience Society The Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) is an international academic society interested in multi-disciplinary approaches to cognitive brain function. Drawing primarily from the biological and psychological sciences, society members are involved i ...

, and has been science advisor for the San Francisco Exploratorium science museum. In 2008, Shimamura received a

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...

fellowship to explore links between art, mind, and brain. His book, ''Experiencing Art: In the Brain of the Beholder'', explores the perceptual, conceptual, and emotional features that guide our encounters with art (e.g., paintings and photography). In 2013, Shimamura edited a volume, ''Psychocinematics: Exploring Cognition at the Movies'', which introduces psychocinematics, the term he coined for scientific investigations of the psychological and biological features of film. Shimamura's research explored other psychological phenomenon, such as visual illusions (The Mystery Spot), aging in UC Berkeley Professors, and emotions in facial expressions. In 2017, he published ''Get SMART! Five Steps Toward a Healthy Brain'', a self-help book that offers guidelines for healthy aging and lifelong learning.

Theories

Shimamura developed a broad theoretical framework that integrates memory ''

encoding In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

'', '' storage'', and '' retrieval''. Shimamura (2000) defined encoding in terms of ''dynamic filtering theory,'' which describes the role of the

prefrontal cortex In mammalian brain anatomy, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) covers the front part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The PFC contains the Brodmann areas BA8, BA9, BA10, BA11, BA12, BA13, BA14, BA24, BA25, BA32, BA44, BA45, BA46, ...

metacognitive Metacognition is an awareness of one's thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them. The term comes from the root word '' meta'', meaning "beyond", or "on top of".Metcalfe, J., & Shimamura, A. P. (1994). ''Metacognition: knowi ...

or executive control processes. The

acts as a high-level gating or filtering mechanism that enhances goal-directed activations and inhibits irrelevant activations. This filtering mechanism guides executive control at various levels of processing, including selecting, maintaining, updating, and rerouting activations, thus allowing us to select relevant sights, sounds, and thoughts. It has long been established that the

medial temporal lobe The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain. The temporal lobe is involved in proc ...

(MTL) is critical for memory storage. In 2010, Shimamura proposed ''hierarchical relational binding theory'', which offers a new interpretation of the role of the MTL in memory storage. It is proposed that regions within the MTL conform to a hierarchical network with the

hippocampus The hippocampus (via Latin from Greek , 'seahorse') is a major component of the brain of humans and other vertebrates. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain. The hippocampus is part of the limbic system, a ...

at the top of the hierarchy. Bindings that occur at the level of the hippocampus particularly strengthen memories so that strong memories get even stronger, a principle called "superadditive". Hierarchical relational binding theory explains both neuroimaging and behavior findings previously attributed to the distinction between recollection and familiarity. In 2011, Shimamura proposed a theory of episodic remembering called ''Cortical Binding of Relational Activity'' (or ''CoBRA''), which defines the

posterior parietal cortex The posterior parietal cortex (the portion of parietal neocortex posterior to the primary somatosensory cortex) plays an important role in planned movements, spatial reasoning, and attention. Damage to the posterior parietal cortex can produce a ...

(PPC) as a convergence zone that integrates or binds features of an

episodic memory Episodic memory is the memory of everyday events (such as times, location geography, associated emotions, and other contextual information) that can be explicitly stated or conjured. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred ...

. Shimamura argues that this binding process is the final stage of

memory consolidation Memory consolidation is a category of processes that stabilize a memory trace after its initial acquisition. A memory trace is a change in the nervous system caused by memorizing something. Consolidation is distinguished into two specific processe ...

such that through PPC binding, episodic memories become more fully represented and retrieved in the neocortex.

Honors and awards

*John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2008) *Fellow and charter member, Association for Psychological Science *Distinguished Teaching Award, Division of Social Sciences, UC Berkeley *Osher fellow and science advisor, San Francisco Exploratorium Science Museum *Ranked 9th of most-cited psychologists ("Highest Impact Authors, 1986-1990," ''APS Observer'', November, 1992)

References

External links

Shimamura's Personal Webpage

Shimamura's page at UC Berkeley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shimamura, Arthur P. 1954 births 2020 deaths American cognitive neuroscientists Memory researchers Neuropsychologists University of California, Berkeley faculty