Probing form and function of memory representations in the hippocampus of memory expert birds

探索记忆专家鸟类海马体记忆表征的形式和功能

• 批准号: 10641392
• 负责人: Emily Lambert Mackevicius
• 金额: $ 15.7万
• 依托单位: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-04-01 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10641392
• 关键词: 3-Dimensional; Address; Affect; Alzheimer' s Disease; Animals; Area; Award; Behavior; Behavioral; Biological; Biological Models; Birds; Brain; Calcium; Cells; Cognition Disorders; Cognitive; Collaborations; Computers and Advanced Instrumentation; Custom; Data; Decision Making; Disease Progression; Ecology; Environment; Equipment; Event; Exhibits; Faculty; Family; Food; Goals; Head; Hippocampus; Human; Imaging Techniques; Impairment; Individual; Knowledge; Lead; Learning; Link; Location; Mammals; Maps; Memory; Mental disorders; Mentors; Methods; Microscope; Modeling; Neurons; Neurosciences; Pattern; Persons; Population; Positioning Attribute; Postdoctoral Fellow; Property; Publishing; Recurrence; Rewards; Rodent; Side; Site; Source; Space Models; Sparrows; System; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Training; Universities; Visit; Work; behavioral study; cognitive task; computer framework; design; experience; experimental study; laboratory experiment; member; memory recall; model organism; network architecture; neural; neuromechanism; neuroregulation; predictive modeling; simulation; skills; spatial memory; spatiotemporal; success; tenure track

Project Summary/Abstract Mental disorders that affect the hippocampus disrupt people’s ability to form one-shot memories. My goal is to lead an independent lab, linking biological properties of hippocampal neurons to the ability to perform memory- guided cognitive behaviors. To map cognitive behaviors to their underlying neural mechanisms, my lab will perform theoretical analyses and simulation of state-space models of cognitive behaviors, implementing these models in a recurrent network architecture with learning rules that match biological plasticity rules (Aims 3a, c). To precisely characterize memory-guided behaviors at real-world complexity, my lab will apply state-of-the-art behavioral tracking techniques in natural settings to foraging behavior of wintering birds, chickadees and sparrows (Aim 3b). As a theorist, I will actively collaborate with experimentalists, drawing on my experience recording from the brain in animals performing cognitive tasks. My postdoctoral work in the Aronov lab, at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, focuses on neural activity underlying a hippocampus-dependent one-shot memory behavior, food-caching, in the model system chickadees, caching birds with extreme memory abilities. I developed new methods for recording large populations of neurons in the chickadee hippocampus while they cache and retrieve food, and methods for precisely tracking their caching behavior (Aim 1a). Probing the hippocampus at moments of caching, I found a new mode of hippocampal activity patterns (Aim 1b), which is reactivated when birds return to retrieve food (Aim 1c). To compare this one-shot mode to representations of consistent environmental features, I am reproducing, in food-caching birds, findings from rodents showing changes to place cells at consistent reward zones, and comparing this to one-shot representations of food-caching (Aim 2a). I am developing a theoretical state-space model that explains both one-shot and consistent representations in the hippocampus (Aim 2b), incorporating hippocampus-inspired neural mechanisms (Aim 2c). Here, I outline a training plan to expand my skills and experience to lead an independent lab doing a combination of theoretical and real-world behavioral studies. I will deepen my training in theoretical methods working with my co-mentor Prof. Larry Abbott, and through affiliation with the Columbia Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. My training in tracking real-world behavior will be guided by my collaborator Prof. Vladimir Pravosudov, the leading pioneer in tracking real-world chickadee behaviors, with an extended visit to his Cognitive and Behavioral Ecology Lab and field sites. For additional training designing and fabricating custom equipment, I will work with Dr. Tanya Tabachnik, who heads the Advanced Instrumentation Core at ZI. This additional training, with instrumental support from the K99/R00 award, will prepare me well, and make me a highly competitive candidate for tenure-track faculty positions.

项目总结/摘要 影响海马体的精神障碍会破坏人们形成一次性记忆的能力。我的目标是 领导一个独立的实验室，将海马神经元的生物学特性与记忆能力联系起来， 引导认知行为。为了将认知行为映射到其潜在的神经机制，我的实验室将 进行认知行为的状态空间模型的理论分析和模拟，实现这些 循环网络架构中的模型，其学习规则与生物可塑性规则相匹配（目标3a、c）。 为了精确描述真实世界复杂性下的记忆引导行为，我的实验室将应用最先进的 行为跟踪技术在自然环境中的越冬鸟类，山雀和 麻雀（目标3b）。作为一个理论家，我将积极与实验家合作，借鉴我的经验 在动物执行认知任务时大脑的记录。 我在哥伦比亚大学朱克曼研究所的阿罗诺夫实验室做博士后工作，主要研究神经系统的 在模型系统中，活动是一种依赖于校园的一次性记忆行为，即食物缓存 山雀，拥有超强记忆力的猎取鸟类。我发明了一种新的方法 山雀海马体中的神经元群体，同时它们缓存和检索食物，以及用于 精确地跟踪它们的缓存行为（目标1a）。在缓存的时刻探测海马体，我发现了一个 海马活动模式的新模式（Aim 1b），当鸟类返回取回食物时（Aim 1 c）。为了将这种一次性模式与一致的环境特征的表示进行比较，我正在复制， 在食物储藏鸟类中，啮齿动物的发现显示了细胞在一致奖励区的变化， 将其与食物缓存的一次性表示进行比较（目标2a）。我正在开发一个理论状态空间 模型解释了海马体中的一次性和一致性表征（Aim 2b）， 校园启发的神经机制（目标2c）。 在这里，我概述了一个培训计划，以扩大我的技能和经验，领导一个独立的实验室， 结合理论和现实世界的行为研究。我将深化理论方法的训练 我和我的共同导师拉里·艾伯特教授一起工作，通过与哥伦比亚理论研究中心的联系， 神经科学我的合作者弗拉基米尔教授将指导我跟踪现实世界行为的训练 Pravosudov是追踪现实世界中山雀行为的先驱， 认知和行为生态学实验室和现场。对于额外的培训设计和制造定制 我将与负责ZI先进仪器核心的Tanya Tabachnik博士合作。这 额外的培训，从K99/R 00奖的工具支持，将我准备好，使我成为一个 非常有竞争力的终身教职候选人。