Event Details:
Jill Leutgeb
University of California, San Diego
"Hippocampal spatial coding and memory"
Abstract
How do neural networks in the brain form distinct and long-lasting memory traces? Dr. Jill Leutgeb’s research is directed towards understanding the neuronal mechanisms of long-term memory storage at the systems level. Her lab combines high-density electrophysiology with behavioral testing, theoretical modeling, and pharmacological and molecular manipulations as a multidisciplinary approach to understanding how spatial information coding in the various subregions of the medial temporal lobe, contribute to the formation of memory. In this seminar, Dr. Leutgeb will describe novel and complementary computations of the dentate gyrus and medial entorhinal cortex networks directly involved in organizing memory-guided behavior and the planning of future trajectories in space.
Bio
Jill Leutgeb received her Ph.D. in Neurophysiology from the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Germany, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Norway, in the lab of Nobel laureates May-Britt and Edvard Moser. She received the prestigious Young Researcher Prize from the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters in recognition of her postdoctoral research. Dr. Leutgeb joined UC San Diego in 2008 and is now Professor in the Neurobiology Section of the Division of Biological Sciences. She is also a member of the Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior, and the Traumatic Brain Injury Team of the Kavli Institute of Brain and Mind, UC San Diego. Dr. Leutgeb has received the Hellman Fellowship, the Ray Thomas Edwards Foundation Early Career Award, and the Walter F. Heiligenberg Professorship in Neuroethology.