ICLM Journal Club
Date: Mar 9th
Time: 09:30 am
Place : 2nd Floor Conference Room, Gonda building.
Contents
Title : "Triggering and degrading associative memory formation"
Speaker: Joshua Johansen PhD
Summary:
Aversive experiences powerfully regulate memory formation by activating ‘teaching signal’ circuits in the brain which can engage neural plasticity in memory storage areas resulting in associative memories. Fear conditioning is a useful paradigm in which to examine the mechanisms by which aversive experiences trigger associative memories because a site of neural plasticity mediating the learning has been identified in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala. Aversive stimuli can either engage or degrade memory formation depending on the temporal placement of aversive stimuli in relation to sensory cues in the environment. Using a combination of optogenetic, electrophysiological and behavioral approaches I examined the neural mechanisms in the lateral amygdala by which aversive experiences trigger or degrade behavioral fear memory formation and neural plasticity. The results of these experiments suggest that combined Hebbian and neuromodulatory mechanisms trigger behavioral fear learning and neural plasticity in the lateral amygdala. In addition, activation of LA pyramidal neurons by aversive stimuli serves as a switch to either induce or degrade fear memory formation depending on the temporal placement of the aversive stimuli during learning.
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Introduction
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory (ICLM) is a multidisciplinary center of UCLA labs devoted to understanding the neural basis of learning and memory and its disorders. This will require a unified approach across different levels of analysis, including;
1. Elucidating the molecular cellular and systems mechanisms that allow neurons and synapses to undergo the long-term changes that ultimately correspond to 'neural memories'.
2. Understanding how functional dynamics and computations emerge from complex circuits of neurons, and how plasticity governs these processes.
3. Describing the neural systems in which different forms of learning and memory take place, and how these systems interact to ultimately generate behavior and cognition.
History of LMP
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory formally LMP started in its current form in 1998, and has served as a platform for many interactions and collaborations within UCLA. The cornerstone of the group is the weekly ICLM Journal Club. For more than 10 years, graduate students, postdocs, principal investigators, and invited speakers have presented on topic ranging from the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, through computational models of learning, to behavior and cognition. Dean Buonomano oversees the LMP with help of student/post doctoral organisers.
Current Organisers:
Thomas Rogerson and Justin Shobe (both from Silva Lab)
Past Organisers:
i) Anna Martyina (Aug 2004 - Jun 2008) (Silva Lab)
ii) Robert Brown (Aug 2008 - Jun 2009) (Balleine Lab)
iii) Balaji Jayaprakash (Aug 2008 - Nov 2011) (Silva Lab)
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