SFB 1134: Functional ensembles: cellular components, patterned activity and plasticity of co-active neurons in local networks

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Representation is a fundamental principle of neuroscience, if not its overarching leitmotif: We all believe that perceptions, memories, thoughts, choices, actions and feelings have a physical correlate in the nervous system. Converging evidence indicates that neuronal representations are formed by reproducible multi-neuronal activity patterns. Thus, elementary cognitive or behavioral states are causally linked to groups of co-active neurons, called neuronal ensembles.We use a large variety of modern approaches to monitor, analyse and manipulate neuronal ensembles in defined functional systems and networks. Our technical approaches comprise electrophysiology at the single- and multiple cell level, life imaging of neuronal activity, virus-mediated modification of defined cell populations, optogenetic manipulations, anatomical tracing techniques, ultrastructural analyses and advanced data analysis. We study mnemonic, sensory, emotional and executive control systems in behaving rodents or brain slice preparations. With this interdisciplinary approach and the unifying idea of functional ensembles as elementary representations we will clarify three important questions: i) How are selected neurons entrained into an ensemble, and how are others excluded? ii) What are the characteristic features of spatio-temporal activity patterns in different networks?iii) How do ensembles adapt to novel experience and to changing inner or outer conditions?Together, we hope to contribute to understanding the cell- and network-level mechanisms allowing our nervous system to form representations in a functionally adaptive manner.