Investigation of affective input during object encoding in the perirhinal cortex

Investigation of affective input during object encoding in the perirhinal cortex

In our everyday life, we ascribe certain emotional value to some objects. More specifically, we ascribe a valence to some objects, which is the degree to which something can be pleasurable or averse, leading to an emotional response when we interact or remember them. In the act of learning and remembering an object, the brain executes a complex set of operations, integrating multiple sensory inputs (vision, smell, touch, sound, etc.) and the corresponding valence of the object to generate a unique mental representation, used to recognize and distinguish one object from another. This is known as object encoding. There is plenty of evidence linking the activity of the main hubs of emotional information processing (Amygdalar nuclei) and object encoding in the brain (perirhinal cortex), but a precise description of how notions of valence are incorporated during object encoding, have not been investigated, in part due to the technical challenges involved. EmotionObjectCoding will make use of Neuropixel, a powerful and new technology, enabling for the first time, the recording of population-level activity with high temporal resolution. This approach will be complemented with in vitro electrophysiological and optogenetic tools, providing a precise description of the neural circuits involved in the incorporation of valence during object encoding. Taken together, these innovative methods, will provide the groundwork for developing new hypothesis for the role of affective input during object encoding. Furthermore, this project will contribute to create a clearer picture about how our emotional well-being affects other important cognitive processes such as learning and potentially, disorders such as PTSD and Alzheimer’s disease.