Host: Oliver Hobert
Title: How the genome controls information processing and plasticity in neural circuits
Abstract: The ability to adapt to and learn from novel experiences is essential for an animal’s survival, and key questions in neuroscience concern the underlying molecular, cellular and circuit mechanisms. Genes whose transcription is altered in response to changes in neural activity and to sensory and emotional experiences are required for the development of neurons and synapses and for experience-dependent processes such as memory formation. However, the circuit function of experience-induced transcription and of the underlying genomic mechanisms remain unknown: for example, what are the functions of experience-induced transcriptional networks in regulating information processing in neural circuits? And: do these genetic mechanisms indeed increase the plasticity of neural circuits or rather restrict it? In my talk, I will discuss my lab’s recent experiments in which we focus on the visual cortex of adult mice and combine a wide array of genomic, genetic, electrophysiological, imaging and behavioural approaches to address these fundamental questions in neuroscience.