Episodic memory

Model the development of episodic memory using artificial neural networks and deep reinforcement learning. The researcher will simulate experimental tasks and interpret results with collaborators in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy within CRC 1844. The 75% doctoral appointment is planned from 1 January 2027 through 31 December 2030, subject to funding approval, with TV-L E13 pay where the relevant conditions are met. Applicants need an excellent relevant master’s degree, mathematical modelling and statistical analysis skills, strong programming, neuroscience research experience and Engl

Investigate the functional role of episodic memory in spatial navigation using modern artificial neural networks and deep reinforcement learning. The project links computational modelling and simulations with experimental psychology and neuroscience through CRC 1844. The 75% doctoral appointment is planned from 1 January 2027 until 31 December 2030, subject to funding approval, with TV-L E13 pay where the relevant conditions are met. Applicants need a relevant master’s degree, mathematical modelling experience, excellent programming and English communication skills, and an interest in interdis

Study episodic memory through a digital serious game that connects laboratory research with citizen science. The doctoral researcher will analyse behavioural data, adapt laboratory experiments with the Cologne Game Lab, validate the resulting memory measures, and relate performance to demographic and psychological information with the German Center for Mental Health. The work enables large-scale, longitudinal studies, including memory changes preceding psychopathology. The 75% appointment is planned from 1 January 2027 until 31 December 2030, subject to funding approval, with TV-L E13 pay wher

…models of hippocampal circuits for episodic memory and spatial navigation. The project asks how hippocampal sequences during sharp-wave ripples are generated and shaped by prior experience and neuromodulation to support memory consolidation. Models are developed with experimental collaborators and validated against in vivo rodent electrophysiological and behavioural data; dutie

There is a fundamental tension between storing discrete traces of individual experiences, which allows recall of particular moments in our past without interference, and extracting regularities across these experiences, which supports generalization and prediction in similar situations in the future. One influential proposal for how the brain resolves this tension is that it separates the processes anatomically into Complementary Learning Systems, with the hippocampus rapidly encoding individual episodes and the neocortex slowly extracting regularities over days, months, and years. But this do

Forming an episodic memory requires binding together disparate elements that co-occur in a single experience. One model of this process is that neurons representing different components of a memory bind to an "index"--- a subset of neurons unique to that memory. Evidence for this model has recently been found in chickadees, specialist birds that use hippocampal memory to store and recall locations of cached food. Chickadee hippocampus produces sparse, high-dimensional patterns ("barcodes") that uniquely specify each caching event. Unexpectedly, the same neurons that participate in barcodes als

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by deficits in episodic memory processing and spatial navigation. Especially, the egocentric neural representation of space, which is important for constructing an egocentric cognitive map, is essential for spatial navigation. However, how spatial navigation deficits relate to egocentric neural representation of space remains unclear. The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is one of the regions affected by amyloidosis in the early stages of AD and is well known for its role in egocentric spatial representation. Specifically, it cont

Hippocampus in mammals is hypothesized to support formation of episodic memory. Bedrock of this is based on the evidence of functional cell types related to immediate space, such as place cells. We aimed to test whether hippocampus, known for supporting spatial maps in physical environments, can localize the source of remote auditory signal and rewards associated with its spatial position. Given previous evidence for auditory sensitivity in the hippocampus [1-2], we recorded extracellular electrophysiological activity from auditory cortex and intermediate-ventral hippocampus simultaneously, us

…and is thought to form the basis of episodic memory. One area implicated in structural learning is the hippocampus. Specifically, neurons in the CA1 area of the hippocampus have been shown to represent variables such as cue configurations and their order in space and time. To investigate the

How can the hippocampal system transition from episodic one-shot learning to a multi-shot learning regime and what is the utility of the resultant neural representations? This talk will explore the role of the dentate gyrus (DG) anatomy in this context. The canonical DG model suggests it performs pattern separation. More recent experimental results challenge this standard model, suggesting DG function is more complex and also supports the precise binding of objects and events to space and the integration of information across episodes. Very recent studies attribute pattern separation and patte

Memory is essential for shaping how we interpret the world, plan for the future, and understand ourselves, yet effective cognitive interventions for real-world episodic memory loss remain scarce. This talk introduces HippoCamera, a smartphone-based intervention inspired by how the brain supports memory, designed to enhance real-world episodic recollection by replaying high-fidelity autobiographical cues. It will showcase how our approach improves memory, mood, and hippocampal activity while uncovering links between memory distinctiveness, well-being, and the perception of time.

…formation is to store and retrieve episodic memory, supported by experiments in humans, or to code for space, suggested by spatially tuned cells (place cells, grid cells, etc.) recorded in nonhuman animals. In an attempt to reconcile the two views, we use a memory-augmented neural network in a reinforcement learning setup to solve a navigation task in a simulated maze. The key feature of the model is that it learns autonomously what and when to store into, and retrieve from, an external memory buffer. Once the mode

Throughout each day the brain captures snapshots of distinct experiences, forming episodic memories that often last a lifetime. This function depends on the hippocampus – a brain region that is evolutionarily conserved across vertebrates. My lab studies the relationship between hippocampal activity and episodic memory using a unique model organism – the black-capped chickadee. Chickadees are specialist food-caching birds that store thousands of food items at concealed locations in their environment and use memory later in time to retrieve their caches. I will describe our effort in designing b

Creating place fields in place cells is crucial for forming spatially dependent episodic memories in the brain, with the hippocampus playing a central role. Specifically, we focus on CA1 pyramidal neurons, which receive inputs from the CA3 and entorhinal cortex (EC). No widely accepted network-based theory for place field formation exists, but many models offer mechanisms for place-field firing. One type of hypotheses proposes that it results from summated output of spatially tuned cells, like grid cells or boundary vector cells. Another suggests CA1 place fields are replicate of CA3 place fie

Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric disorder presenting with delusions, hallucinations, and cognitive dysfunction, characterised by widespread aberrant connectivity both in early and chronic stages. One of the relatively most connected forebrain regions is the claustrum, which has been shown to have reduced volume in schizophrenia. However, whether claustrum microstructure and connectivity are altered remains unknown. We hypothesized aberrant claustrum structure and tract-based connectivity in individuals with recent-onset schizophrenia. Structural and diffusion-weighted MRI data from

…brain disorder in which deficits in episodic memory function are among the first cognitive symptoms observed. Clinical findings indicate that AD patients are more susceptible to anesthesia-induced postoperative cognitive dysfunction, which is in line with the well-known fact that general anesthesia is more detrimental in the two extreme age groups, neonates/infants and the elderly. Alfaxalone (ALX) is the synthetic analog of allopregnanolone. It is currently in use only in veterinary practice as a fast-acting anesthetic with a high thera

The serotonergic system was previously shown to affect learning and memory processes in humans[1]. Establishing a relation between serotonin-1A receptor (5-HT1AR) distribution with memory processing would allow us to further investigate its potential as a therapeutic target. Here, we aim to investigate the effect of 5-HT1AR spatial distribution on the different memory domains. Positron emission tomography data were collected from 20 healthy volunteers using the radioligand [carbonyl-11C]WAY-100635 [2,3]. Data were quantified using multilinear reference tissue model 2 to obtain non-displaceable

…detailed memories for events (`episodic memory`) from that time. The underlying reason may be the dramatic changes that the hippocampus undergoes postnatally. Episodic(-like) memory is also known to develop late in rodents. As such, hippocampal-dependent memory starts to emerge from ~3weeks of age. This time window is associated with changes in the molecular composition of neurons and the emergence of hippocampal activity mechanisms implicated in the mature memory (e.g. place cells, replay).In order to u

We aimed to characterize cognitive profiles and brain morphology correlates of Prodromal and Parkinson's disease (PD) patients from the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative program, given the value of detecting Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) as a risk factor for dementia in the Prodromal stage. K-means clustering analysis was performed to identify distinct cognitive profiles based on the cognitive domain scores of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, while volumetric quantification of brain regions was conducted using the AssemblyNet pipeline on T13D MRI brain images. Distinct cognitive p

…constituting the “who” component of episodic memory. We identified a neuroanatomical pathway responsible for integrating individual recognition information into the complex socio-spatial memories stored within the hippocampus. Within this pathway, the posteromedial cortical amygdaloid nucleu

Episodic memories are crucial elements that determine our sense of identity. Episodic memory formation is mostly dependent on the proper function of the hippocampus. However, mechanisms of episodic memory formation, maintenance and retrieval are only beginning to be elucidated. One of the leading scientific theories about the hippocampal role in memory is indexing theory. This concept builds on the premise that hippocampal neurons are multi-synaptically bi-directionally linked with sensory and associative cortical regions. Nevertheless, it is not clear if cortical reinstating occurs on a neuro

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is believed to have a prolonged preclinical phase when aggregates of soluble, neurotoxic tau and amyloid species accrue and slowly develop into positron emission tomography (PET)-detectable neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques, respectively, which in turn herald the onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Hence, understanding the spatiotemporal timeline for the accrual of these early pathological species prior to PET detection and clinical symptoms will facilitate the development of disease-modifying AD therapies. In this study, we quantified the

The consolidation of long-term memory is thought to critically rely on sleep. However, first evidence from a study in drosophila suggests that hunger as another brain state can benefit memory consolidation as well. Here, we report two human (within-subjects crossover) experiments examining the effects of fasting (versus satiated conditions) during a 10-hour post-encoding consolidation period on later recall of declarative and procedural memories in healthy men. In Experiment 1, participants (n = 16), after an 18.5-hour fasting period, encoded 3 memory tasks (verbal word paired associates, a vi

…pertaining to pattern separation and episodic memory. The hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) subregion is crucial for gating the flow and separating the patterns of cortical information inputs, transmitting them via DG granule cell mossy