Over the last several decades, the tractable response properties of parahippocampal neurons have provided a new access key to understanding the cognitive process of self-localization: the ability to know where you are currently located in space. Defined by functionally discrete response properties, neurons in the medial entorhinal cortex and hippocampus are proposed to provide the basis for an internal neural map of space, which enables animals to perform path-integration based spatial navigation and supports the formation of spatial memories.  My lab focuses on understanding the mechanisms that generate this neural map of space and how this map is used to support behavior.  In this talk, I’ll discuss how learning and experience shapes our internal neural maps of space to guide behavior.  

Those who wish to meet the speaker should contact Serra Favila (Aly/Jacobs Lab) or Fraser Sparks (Losonczy Lab).


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.