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FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

Integration of spatial and social memory in hippocampus CA2 and medial entorhinal cortex

Alternative title: Nevrale koder for sted og sosiale minner i hippocampus og entorhinal cortex.

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

Social interactions are essential for humans, and social memories are part of our autobiographical memories. It is well known that the brain area hippocampus is a key player for the formation of autobiographical memories, combining information about what happened in space and time into vivid memories. While the spatial part of episodic memories has been investigated in great detail, the neural representations underlying social memories are poorly understood. A small and mostly overlooked part of the hippocampus, the subfield CA2, may have a special role integrating social information into our memories. It has a unique anatomical positioning receiving both social information from the hypothalamus and spatial information from medial entorhinal cortex (MEC). Thus, we hypothesize that the CA2 integrates social and spatial information. In SocialBrain, we will record neural activity from the CA2 and its input regions during social memory tasks to reveal the neural code of social memories. Grid cells in entorhinal cortex provide the hippocampus with a reliable spatial code, but it is unknown if it also holds information about social interactions. This research project will examine how social memories are represented in the brain. Some patients suffer from impaired social memories, and in order to find a cure for such brain diseases it is important to reveal how the brain normally perform these tasks.

Social interactions are important for humankind and often a central element of our autobiographical memories. However, the neural representations underlying social memories are poorly understood. The hippocampal formation is essential for encoding of episodic memories in mammals, combining information in space and time, keeping episodes apart and in their correct context. A mostly overlooked part of the hippocampus, the subfield CA2, may have a special role integrating social information into our memories. It has a unique anatomical positioning receiving both information about social interactions from the hypothalamus and spatial information from medial entorhinal cortex (MEC). Thus, we hypothesize that the CA2 integrates social and spatial information. In SocialBrain, we will conduct simultaneous recordings of neural activity from the CA2 and its input regions during social memory tasks and object memory tasks for comparison. This will be combined with targeted perturbations of brain activity using optogenetics and chemogenetics. It is unknown if the grid cells in MEC are modulated by social interactions. We will first investigate if the spatial code of grid cells in MEC is affected by social interactions. We will examine how social memories are represented in CA2 and if they depend on spatial input from MEC, oscillatory input from medial septum and neuromodulatory input from paraventrucular nucleus. This research will also bring insight about impaired social interactions in e.g. psychiatric disorders and will be the initiation of translational studies.

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FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

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