Topic: olfactory cortex

The connectivity structure of many biological systems, including neural circuits, is highly non-uniform. Recent technologies allow detailed mapping of these irregularities, but our understanding of their effect on the overall circuit dynamics is still lacking. By developing complex system analytical tools that perform reduction of the network, I determine the impact of connectivity features on network dynamics. I will demonstrate the use of these tools on neural assemblies (clusters), a ubiquitous non-uniform structure in our brains. I will show how neural assemblies of different sizes natural

In many brain regions, the stimulus tuning of neurons is stable on a timescale of hours but not on a timescale of weeks, a phenomenon often called ‘representational drift’. For example, in piriform cortex, which is commonly considered primary olfactory cortex, the cells responsive to a given odor are completely uncorrelated with those activated by the same odor two weeks later (Schoonover et al., 2021). This would seem to imply that piriform cortex, like other brain regions whose activity appears to drift, is useless for the retrieval of associative memories learned several weeks prior. Howeve

Inhibitory microcircuits play an important role regulating cortical responses to sensory stimuli. Interneurons that inhibit dendritic or somatic integration are gatekeepers for neural activity, synaptic plasticity and the formation of sensory representations. We have been investigating the synaptic plasticity mechanisms underlying the formation of ensembles in olfactory and orbitofrontal cortex. We have been focusing on the roles of three inhibitory neuron classes in gating excitatory synaptic plasticity in olfactory cortex- somatostatin (SST-INs), parvalbumin (PV-INs), and vasoactive intestin