NeuroNetwork 14

Project titel: CBBScircuitS - A Neuronetwork for functional analysis of the engram connectome Project leader: Gürsel Caliskan, Anne Bayrhammer, Guilherme Monteiro Gomes

Humans experience a great overlapping of information on the day-to-day situations, which create the potential for memory interference, and thus imposing the challenge of storing all these experiences as independent memories. The hippocampus has been implicated to support these fundamental functions via either enabling the independent storage of very similar experiences (pattern separation) or retrieval of relevant memory in ambiguous situations based on previously stored information (pattern completion).

Reduced capacity to form, store and retrieve individual memories is commonly observed in a wide spectrum of brain disorders including mental retardation syndromes, schizophrenia, neurodegenerative disorders and dementia. On the other side of the spectrum of cognitive disturbances are the persisting intrusive memories that are very hard to live with, e.g., post-traumatic stress disorders. The effectiveness of currently available treatment for these incapacitating conditions is restricted.

In our CBBS-NeuroNetwork, we will study the hippocampal circuits involved in pattern separation/completion function and their alterations by using new state-of the-art engram labelling technologies that allow us to follow the history of engram cells together with electrophysiological and proteomic tools. We will particularly focus on modulation of the memory engram dynamics under heightened emotional arousal and further study the engram formation, storage and re-activation during impaired pattern separation and completion functions using animal models with aberrant memory formation. We will use newly-developed proteomic tools to study the molecular signature of memory engram cells aiming at identifying markers for memory specificity in hippocampal circuits. With this project, we hope to reveal suitable entry sites for development of pharmacotherapy.