Neural Mechanisms of LEARNING
The Grienberger lab
Department of Biology and Volen National Center for Complex Systems
Brandeis University
The brain’s ability to learn is critical for executing tasks that allow us to thrive in a complex, ever-changing environment. We combine experimental work and computational methods to understand the synaptic, cellular, and circuit-level computations that allow the brain to produce these complex adaptive behaviors. Our focus is the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit and its downstream projection targets, a network of brain areas known to be essential for spatial learning and memory.
We use various techniques, including two-photon Ca2+ imaging, whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, and optogenetic perturbation of neuronal activity, to investigate the single-cell and population activity in various brain regions of mice actively engaged in a spatial memory task. Our goal is to investigate the fundamental principles underlying learning in the intact and diseased brain.
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