Deficits in spatial navigation are among the early symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease patients, consistent with the hippocampal formation as the site for spatial computations and disease onset. Although the correspondence between the early symptoms and brain regions that are affected early in the disease has been recognized, it is not clear whether progressive cognitive decline is solely caused by a spreading pathology or whether a focal pathology can by itself cause aberrant neuronal activity in a larger network.

In this talk, I will explore how deficits in spatial navigation can arise from alterations in temporal dynamic patterns of single cells in relation to brain oscillations such as theta oscillation during navigation and sharp wave ripples during offline periods of memory consolidation. I will show how sequential firing during the behavior task is essential for intact navigation and how compression of temporal sequences of place fields within individual theta cycles permits the use of synaptic plasticity for learning of sequential structure, thereby giving a temporal dimension to hippocampal memory traces.

About the Speaker: Silvia Viana da Silva is Group Leader of Cellular Circuits of Memory (Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen e.V., DZNE), and SFB1315 Associate PI.

Certificate of attendance: Please contact team assistant serenella.brinati.1@hu-berlin.de

This talk is hosted by Matthew Larkum, who  will introduce and moderate the Q&A.

Lecture Poster

Series Overview