Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Synaptic and Cellular Underpinning of Memory Perception, Novelty Detection and Integration Studied Through In vivo Imaging and Opto/Chemogenetics in Rodents |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Focus area : | Memory Encoding, Optogenetics |
Principal Investigator : | Prof. Balaji Jayaprakash, Indian Institute Of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka |
Timeline Start Year : | 2023 |
Timeline End Year : | 2026 |
Contact info : | balaji@cns.iisc.ernet.in |
Details
Executive Summary : | The external environment of an organism provides information that aids in survival. The mammalian brain processes these cues and differentiates between novel, similar, or identical experiences. This process requires the brain to acquire and compare current information with prior knowledge, which relies on detecting novelty. Previous research has identified brain regions, cellular, and synaptic mechanisms involved in acquiring new memories, consolidating them, and organizing them as schematic structures. However, little is known about where and how memories are perceived, novelty is detected, and new information is assimilated. Recent research suggests that when the brain encounters events that are similar to previous experiences, it encages a new mechanism to integrate the information to previous related memory. The Hippocampal subregion (HpC) of the mammalian brain is pivotal for forming memory, and several theories have been proposed for hippocampal function. These theories provide little insight into how novelty is detected, specificity is maintained, and how the relationship between multiple memories is stored. Understanding these fundamental mechanisms of memory processing, encoding, and retrieval could help elucidate the mechanisms underlying cognition's emergence and decline observed during normal ageing and disease. The central hypothesis proposed in this proposal is that memory perception at the CA1 subregion facilitates the detection of novelty/similarity present in current events and encodes it as new memory when it is novel or integrates it with previous related memory when it is similar. |
Co-PI: | Prof. Deepak Kumaran Nair, Indian Institute Of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka-560012 |
Total Budget (INR): | 50,83,472 |
Organizations involved