Thalamocortical Spike Dynamics that Facilitate Memory Consolidation
Project 1
Two fundamental oscillations of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, thalamocortical spindles and hippocampal ripples, play a causal role in memory consolidation. Ripples correspond to the reactivation of hippocampal cell ensembles representing recent episodic memory and frequently occur in association with spindles. The thalamus generates spindles, and thalamocortical cells entrain neocortical circuits in the spindle oscillation. The rate and duration of spindles and ripples correlates with memory improvement after sleep, and recent approaches to enhance spindles, ripples, or their coupling demonstrate that enhancing these oscillations improves memory.
In this project, we are investigating the causal role of thalamic activity in facilitating neocortical spindles, hippocampal ripples, and their temporal coupling. We use extracellular electrophysiology and optogenetics in freely behaving rats to investigate the coordinated activation of thalamic neurons and understand their contribution to the generalization and consolidation of episodic memory.
