The hippocampal CA2 region and the search for the social engrams - Steven Siegelbaum

Stanford Neurosciences Institute Seminar Series Presents

The hippocampal CA2 region and the search for the social engram

Steven Siegelbaum, Ph.D

Chair, Department of Neurosciences, Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D. Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Pharmacology

Host: Lisa Giocomo

Abstract

Studies of the neural circuitry underlying hippocampal-dependent memory have focused on the trisynaptic path, in which information from entorhinal cortex propagates to dentate gyrus, CA3 and then CA1, the major hippocampal output. Our studies focus on the long-neglected CA2 region, whose unique cellular and synaptic properties enable it to form the nexus of a powerful disynaptic circuit directly linking entorhinal cortex to CA1 output. At the behavioral level, we find that CA2 is critical for social memory, the ability of an animal to recognize a conspecific. Alterations in CA2 function are likely to contribute to social endophenotypes associated with neuropsychiatric disease. In recent experiments we explore whether CA2 plays a passive, permissive role in social memory or actively encodes social representations.