CAREER: Hippocampal place cell plasticity

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project focuses on how the Hebbian, or spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), influences the activity of networks of neurons in the hippocampus to mediate behavioral learning. Using a combination of computational modeling and behavioral electrophysiology, Mayank Mehta and his collaborators have shown that there are large, associative, and anticipatory changes in the activity of hippocampal place-selective neurons with experience, termed place cell plasticity. The experimental measurements of place cell plasticity are consistent with Dr. Mehtas and others computational theories of temporal sequence learning via STDP. Thus, place cell plasticity provides an assay for understanding network mechanisms of learning. In this project, Dr. Mehta will develop biophysical computational theories of learning in networks of neurons via STDP, improving on existing simplified models. The predictions of these computational models will be tested experimentally using behavioral electrophysiology. These experiments will help to isolate the contribution of STDP from other, non-specific mechanisms, to place cell plasticity and learning. This combination of theoretical and experimental approaches will enhance our understanding of how synaptic plasticity modifies the activity of complex networks of neurons to generate behavioral learning.