A pair of researchers in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior are designing new technology and research methods to discover how brain circuits support learning and memory.
The Brain Computation and Behavior Lab, led by , an assistant professor and Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life 麻豆视频 in the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频, and , also an assistant professor in A&S, studies both spatial and social memory in rodents using a combination of methods 鈥 naturalistic behavioral tasks, in vivo electrophysiology, calcium imaging, optogenetic manipulations (using a combination of light and genetic engineering to control brain cells) and anatomical circuit mapping.
鈥淚 think of the brain as a complex system, with so many components coordinating in a precise balance for the system to work,鈥 Oliva said. 鈥淏ut this system, is not only the sum of its parts, once is all functioning, very interesting processes emerge, such as the ability to generate memories - we remember things since very early on in our life, yet we never stop learning new stuff.鈥
Fernandez-Ruiz said he initially became interested in neuroscience from a philosophical perspective.
鈥淥ne question that intrigued me was: if they take your memory away from you, are you still you anymore?鈥 he said. 鈥淲hen you go to sleep, there is a stream of consciousness, this internal dialogue that is suddenly interrupted, but when you wake up, you can go back to your memories in the same place as before. Memories are the central most important element of your identity.鈥
Both say they turned to science to explore their curiosities in this area. In some ways, Oliva and Fernandez-Ruiz have embraced nontraditional ways of research.
鈥淢any people have manipulated brain activity by silencing part of the brain and then seeing if the animal can鈥檛 remember, but that鈥檚 not a good way to do things because one area of the brain does so many things,鈥 Fernandez-Ruiz said.
鈥淚nstead, we are training our animals to do multiple tasks in different contexts, then, manipulating selected neural processes during specific times and seeing whether or not they are able to transfer previously learned information to new situations,鈥 Oliva said.
Her work also includes research into the mechanisms of memory consolidation during sleep. 鈥淔or long, we were wondering how the brain makes room for more and more memories, almost during a lifetime! The answer is a balance in the system during sleep. So we are tracking how different neural processes emerge during sleep to consolidate memories, but also to reset the neurons and make them available for more learning,鈥 she said.
The contains several rooms where mice and rats lounge around in various enclosures. During training, they are placed onto tracks where researchers use food to train them to take certain pathways. After they are trained, they receive implants so that Fernandez-Ruiz and Oliva can study how their brain circuits are remembering the tasks or what is happening while they are sleeping.
The pair of researchers has worked with engineers as well as outside companies to design and build electrodes that can measure and analyze neural activity in many regions of the brain at the same time.
Their work has applications for many diseases that affect the brain, Fernandez-Ruiz said, including schizophrenia, Alzheimer鈥檚 and epilepsy, a research line that they are exploring in collaboration with and Nozomi Nishimura, both professors in the College of Engineering鈥檚 Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering.
鈥淪ince we know that there are specific neural patterns important for memory, we can specifically detect those patterns and then interfere with them through optogenetics,鈥 he said. 鈥淎n implant could be developed to detect a seizure before it happens and stop the brain activity that will cause it or detect the onset of schizophrenia early on in a much less invasive way.鈥 This same process might be able to boost neural patterns that could revert memory deficits in patients with Alzheimer鈥檚.
The pair has also started a collaboration with , an associate professor of neurobiology and behavior in the College of Agriculture and Life 麻豆视频 and a Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life 麻豆视频, and Klarman fellow Matthew Zipple (A&S) to conduct experiments with rodents in a natural outdoor setting near Cornell鈥檚 Ithaca campus. Together, they plan to investigate the neural mechanisms of natural behaviors, a field that has been traditionally very strong at Cornell.
鈥淲e piloted this program by releasing some mice out there with implanted electrodes to see how the brain works in their real world, as animals natural experience鈥 forage for food and look for shelters or develop a social structure,鈥 Oliva said.
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