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PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
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SUMMARY:BMI Seminar // Making\, Breaking and Linking Memories
DTSTART:20170503T121500
DTEND:20170503T131500
DTSTAMP:20260603T214224Z
UID:9c8c0bcff97b246e990d1cd21c3f4e4beac4127247ad1679ca45a360
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Sheena Josselyn\, Department of Physiology\, The Hospital for 
 Sick Children\, University of Toronto\, Canada\nA fundamental goal of neur
 oscience is to understand how information is encoded and stored in the bra
 in.  The physical or functional representation of a memory (the memory tr
 ace or “engram”) is thought to be sparsely encoded over a distributed 
 memory network. However\, identifying the precise neurons which make up a 
 memory trace has challenged for scientists since Karl Lashley’s “searc
 h for the engram” in the 1950’s (Josselyn\, 2015\; Lashley\, 1950\; Jo
 sselyn\, 2010\; Josselyn et al.\, 2015).  Moreover\, it was not known why
  one neuron (rather than its neighbour) was involved in a given memory tra
 ce. We previously showed that lateral amygdala (LA) neurons with increase
 d levels of the transcription factor CREB (cAMP/Ca++ Responsive Element
  Binding protein)\, are preferentially activated by fear memory expressi
 on\, suggesting they are selectively recruited into the memory trace (Han 
 et al.\, 2007).  We\, and others\, went on to show that these neurons wer
 e critical components of the memory network by selectively ablating (Han e
 t al.\, 2009) or inactivating them (Zhou et al.\, 2009).  These findings 
 established a causal link between a specific neuronal subpopulation and me
 mory expression\, thereby identifying critical neurons within the memory t
 race. Furthermore\, these results suggest that at least within the LA\, el
 igible neurons compete for inclusion in a memory trace\, and that the win
 ners of this competition are determined by relative CREB function.  Alth
 ough competition between neurons\, axons and synapses is necessary for re
 fining neural circuits in development\, little is known about competition
  between neurons in the adult brain. Our recent results suggest that this
  neuronal competition during memory formation limits the overall size of t
 he memory trace (number of “winning” neurons) and is a mechanism that 
 links (or disambiguates) related memories in the LA (Rashid\, et al.\, 20
 16).\nMemory impairments are a hallmark of aging\, major mental illnesses 
 (e.g.\, schizophrenia and depression) as well as neurological disorders (e
 .g.\, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases). Therefore\, understanding how
  the brain encodes and stores information is highly relevant to both menta
 l health and mental illness.\n 
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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