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Project

FLEXIBRAIN: The study of telencephalic interactions at the basis of behavioral flexibility

Our perpetually changing world requires quite some flexibility to select the appropriate response in each specific moment in time and environmental configuration. The interaction between hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex might have particular significance for reversal learning, which involves modulation of learned responses, and is an established paradigm to study cognitive flexibility in laboratory rodents. We propose to examine the general involvement of forebrain interactions in rodent reversal learning across different cognitive domains (spatial, non-spatial and social). A range of behavioral, electrophysiological and pharmacological methods will allow mechanistic analysis of these interactions. The ability to flexibly change behavior is obviously central to cognition, whereas inflexibility appears to be a feature of each major brain disorder. We, therefore, propose to study reversal learning in mouse models of brain disease as well, and examine whether therapeutic procedures aimed to improve hippocampal-prefrontal interaction also improve reversal learning.
Date:1 Oct 2017 →  30 Sep 2021
Keywords:flexibrain
Disciplines:Biological and physiological psychology, General psychology, Other psychology and cognitive sciences