Dr. Laura Ewell – NBB Seminar Series
NBB Seminar Series
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at 2:00pm
The seminar will be live streamed via Zoom and In-Person.
Laura Ewell, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, School of Medicine
University of California, Irvine
“Physiological mechanisms of behavioral discrimination of similar contexts“
Abstract:
There is long-standing physiological evidence that networks of the hippocampus perform pattern separation – the process of transforming similar input patterns to more dissimilar output patterns. It is believed that this process allows animals to store similar experiences as distinct memories, however direct evidence linking pattern separation physiological mechanisms and behavioral discrimination are lacking. Furthermore, it is unclear whether this process would persist in situations where it would be beneficial to ignore small differences. In this seminar, I will present data from a novel task that allows us to link physiological computations of hippocampal CA1 and DG to task demand.