If you’re walking while engrossed in an audiobook, you may lose track of where you are. Why? This project aims to understand how the brain, particularly cells in the hippocampus, represent features of the world depending on fluctuating attention.
Transforming a sensory trace to working memory for goal-directed navigation
How is a visual cue remembered and held in memory to enact actions in the future? By tracing the flow of information across cortico-hippocampal circuits, I seek to measure neural correlates of the various forms of working memory.
Sharp-wave ripples (SPW-Rs) within CA1 are bursts of activity coordinated with neocortical sleep states. By silencing the medial entorhinal cortex (mEC), I found that the mEC acts as a gatekeeper for the timing and neuronal content of CA1 SPW-Rs.
Local circuits within hippocampal CA1 can sustain spatial tuning with minimal external inputs
Can a network with minimal excitatory connections generate sequences? I simultaneously silenced the two major excitatory projections to area CA1. Despite large effects on the local field potential, place cells persisted, suggesting autonomy within CA1.