**This seminar will take place virtually via Zoom. A link to view will be posted closer to the seminar date.**

This month's speakers:

Hannah Payne (Aronov lab): "Neural representations of place in the avian hippocampus"

The hippocampus supports episodic memory in both mammals and birds, but it is unclear how general hippocampal mechanisms are across these tetrapod classes. We examined the neural representation of space in the hippocampus of food-caching birds—memory specialists who rely on an enlarged hippocampus to remember the locations of stored food—and of non-food-caching birds. Neurons in food-caching birds exhibited sparse spatial representations similar to classic place cells in rodents. Further, the distribution of spatial cells varied along a septal-temporal axis, analogous to the distribution in rodents. The hippocampus of non-food-caching birds also displayed spatial selectivity, but to a lesser extent. Finally, both species exhibited sharp wave ripple-like events. These results suggest that the neural mechanisms for spatial memory are fundamentally similar in mammals and birds, but the exact implementation varies across species.

Leonor Remédio, PhD, (Costa lab): "Neuronal control of spleen hematopoiesis and immunity"

Most of neuroscience has been focused on how organisms control their behavior in an adaptive manner, by movements generated through muscle innervation. However, many behavioral states are accompanied by changes that are not effected through muscles, but through other organs. These can range from changes in body temperature or metabolic states to changes in the number of circulating cells – that can result from hematopoiesis (formation of blood cells, necessary to maintain homeostasis) or release from reservoirs – and changes in the immune response. We are mapping the effector innervation of the spleen, a highly innervated hematopoietic and immune organ, aiming to determine the function of this innervation in hematopoiesis and immune functions.

This seminar is part of the Zuckerman Institute Postdoctoral Seminar series. For questions about this or future seminars, please contact [email protected].