Columbia University in the City of New York

Mar 19, 20194:00 pm
Seminar

Coding of Space and Time in the Entorhinal Cortex

Featuring Michael Erik Hasselmo, DPhil, Center for Systems Neuroscience and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University

March 19th, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm at the Jerome L. Greene Science Center (9th floor lecture hall)

This seminar will be held in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on Columbia's Manhattanville campus (9th floor lecture hall). Columbia University's Intercampus Shuttle Service is the best way to travel between campuses.

Neurophysiological recordings in behaving rodents from brain regions involved in episodic memory demonstrate neuronal response properties that may code spatial location and elapsed time. This includes the coding in entorhinal cortex and hippocampus of spatial location by place cells and grid cells. Many of these cells also code the temporal intervals during behavioral tasks. Models of the coding of spatial location utilize either integration of running speed and direction or the sensory computation of angle and distance of visual features on environmental boundaries. These models draw on data about the neurons that respond to head direction, neurons that respond to running speed and neurons that respond to environmental boundaries in allocentric coordinates or that respond to boundaries in egocentric coordinates. Experimental data implicates theta rhythm oscillations in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in memory function, and data shows that alterations of subcortical input regulating theta rhythm oscillations can impair the responses of neurons coding space and time. Experimental data and computational modeling have explored how the network dynamics of cortical and subcortical circuits could contribute to the neural coding of time and space for memory function.

Michael E. Hasselmo is Director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience at Boston University and a Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. He oversees three NIMH R01 grants and an ONR MURI award. His lab studies functional dynamics of cortical encoding using neurophysiological recording and computational modeling of entorhinal cortex and associated structures. He completed his D.Phil. at Oxford and a postdoctorial fellowship at Caltech. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and received the 2015 Hebb Award from the INNS.

Those who wish to meet the speaker during their visit should contact Ida Momennejad (Jacobs lab). For general inquiries please contact [email protected].

The Columbia Neuroscience Seminar series is a collaborative effort of Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Department of Neuroscience, the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and with support from the Kavli Institute for Brain Science.

Venue: the Jerome L. Greene Science Center (9th floor lecture hall)
3227 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

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