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Project

How do the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex cooperate in memory processing?

Memories of past experiences influence how we view the present
and how we make predictions about the future. The brain is welltuned
to capture and translate precise information about experiences
into a set of memory traces arranged in a network of distributed
connections. During periods of immobility and sleep, the brain is
actively reactivating previously stored memories as evidenced by
internally-generated patterns of neuronal activity that reflect recent
experiences. These “replay” events are believed to strengthen the
integration of new knowledge into the brain’s memory store and
support simulation of possible future actions. We aim to elucidate
how the expression of internally generated hippocampal replay
events, embedded in hippocampal ripples,
contribute to neocortical replay, and eventually to the consolidation of
memory in the neocortex. For this, we will first detect hippocampal
ripples and then immediately perturb prefrontal replay events
selectively as a way to probe their specific role in learning. We will
further study, through optogenetic silencing, whether and how the
hippocampal replay is transferred and integrated to neocortical
replay, and eventually consolidated into the neocortex.

Date:1 Jan 2022 →  Today
Keywords:navigation, sleep, memory
Disciplines:Cognitive neuroscience, Animal experimental psychology, Biological psychology, Neurophysiology, Behavioural biology