Research Projects

The project aims to explore pattern learning in individual hippocampal neurons, a crucial part of context learning in rodents. The hippocampus plays a significant role in various forms of context learning, such as place, reward, odours, and prior experience. The researchers plan to establish an in-vitro system to test synaptic and subcellular computational mechanisms for selective, pattern-specific learning. They hypothesize that the Excitatory-Inhibitory (E-I) balance for a specific set of inputs is altered through plasticity when hippocampal neurons learn place cell responses and other contextual selectivity. Additionally, they hypothesize that a single neuron can learn to respond to and discriminate between a specific combination of inputs among many possible patterns. The lab will use a pipeline using the hippocampal in-vitro slice system to examine excitation, inhibition, and their balance within a cell. They will use patterned illumination on a population of optogenetically responsive hippocampal CA3 neurons to provide input activity and context, and perform whole-cell patch recordings from hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. The core experiment will involve illuminating the CA3 with different optical patterns while depolarizing the postsynaptic CA1 pyramidal neuron for a subset of these patterns to induce plasticity. The study will advance the theoretical and systems understanding of pattern learning and have implications for neurological conditions, such as neurodegeneration and E-I imbalance, which impair memory and recall.