Thursday, January 2, 2025
Session 1 (4-6 PM): Dave Olton Data Blitz
Prospector 1 & 2
Session 2 (8-10 PM): Bridging the Gap: Developing Novel Cross-Species Behavioral Paradigms to Investigate Mechanisms of Age-Related Memory Decline
Chairs: Casey Vanderlip
Marcelo Wood – University California Irvine
Sara Burke – University of Florida
Craig Stark and Casey Vanderlip – University California Irvine
The symposium will discuss the development of behavioral paradigms aimed at investigating age-related memory loss across species. Recent advances have significantly deepened our understanding of the mechanisms underlying memory formation and have identified neural circuits particularly susceptible to cognitive aging. These insights underscore the necessity of designing new behavioral paradigms that integrate this emerging knowledge. Our symposium will feature three distinguished speakers who have developed innovative paradigms to explore the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie performance on these tasks. Marcelo Wood will discuss the use of a memory updating paradigm in mice to investigate hippocampal memory across the lifespan and the relationship between a hippocampus DNA methylation epigenetic clock and memory updating performance. Sara Burke will focus on the reverse translation of behavioral paradigms that are rooted in human cognitive neuroscience to elucidate the mechanisms of cognitive aging. Finally, Craig Stark will present on the development of mnemonic discrimination tasks to assess hippocampal function in older adults and the neurobiological correlates of performance. By bridging the gap between human and animal models, researchers can better understand the mechanisms underlying hippocampal memory and how these processes are affected by healthy and pathological aging. These innovative approaches aim to develop standardized methods for assessing memory function, enhancing our ability to probe the behavioral correlates of hippocampal function.
Friday, January 3, 2025
Session 3 (8-10am): Thalamocortical-hippocampal network contributions to cognition
Chair: Jai Yu
Gideon Rothschild – University of Michigan
Carmen Varela – Florida State University
Yinxue Wang – Max Plank Florida Institute for Neuroscience
Jai Yu – University of Chicago
Characterizing the function of individual brain regions as well as interactions between multiple brain regions are increasingly important for understanding the neural basis of cognition. This session will bring together pre-tenure faculty whose research explores the contribution of thalamocortical-hippocampal networks to cognition. We are a diverse group of earlier career researchers from diverse institutions and will share our exciting and unpublished results. Our speakers will cover a range of topics including: 1) whether and how information processing in sensory pathways of different modalities dynamically support navigation based on the availability of sensory cues, 2) electrophysiological recordings and optogenetics experiments in rats describing how the temporal pattern of neuronal activation in the thalamus during sleep spindles regulates downstream cortical activity and contributes to the consolidation of episodic memory, 3) a novel mechanism by which CA1 pyramidal neurons encode distance or time via two functional subpopulations, and 4) how neocortical-hippocampal networks can integrate new information into existing memory structures.
Session 4 (4-6pm): Experience-dependent plasticity in the developing social brain: A cross-species perspective
Chair: Maya Opendak
Maya Opendak – Kennedy Krieger Institute & Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Lisa Hiura – Colorado University of Boulder
Amanda M. Dettmer – Yale University
Erica Glasper – The Ohio State University
The development of social behavior reflects changing demands of age, environment, species and responses to early care quality. Indeed, the caregiver-infant social dyad provides a lasting template for lifelong social behavior patterns, with early caregiving adversity producing immediate and enduring impacts on the brain and behavior. However, the specific neural mechanisms translating early social experience to long-term reorganization of social behavior remain poorly understood. We propose a panel bringing together research across several mammalian species exhibiting variability in care quality to produce lasting neurobehavioral outcomes in offspring. Session chair Dr. Maya Opendak will present on rat pup research using multi-level assessments to determine how early caregiving adversity reorganizes infant & adolescent social behavior through impacts on genes, brain circuits, and peripheral biomarkers. Dr. Lisa Hiura will then present work on the developmental onset of pair bonding behavior in the socially monogamous prairie vole model. Dr. Erica Glasper will present findings on how the early challenge of parent loss, in a biparental species (California mouse), results in sex-specific maladaptive behaviors and immune functioning following later-life social interactions. Dr. Amanda M. Dettmer will close with research examining the influences of variable early life social environments on neurocognitive development and social behavior in rhesus monkeys. Points for discussion will include how each of these presentations leverages the unique social behavior of the species discussed to highlight the importance of cross-species approaches, need for ecologically valid stress models, and to identify points of convergence for intervention.
Session 5: (8-10pm) Navigating the Slippery Slope: Uncovering the Cognitive Terrain of Substance Use Disorders Through Animal Models
Chair: Lori Knackstedt
Caitlin Orsini – University of Texas at Austin
Stephanie Groman – University of Chicago
Marek Schwendt – University of Florida
Cognitive deficits are observed in individuals with substance use disorders. However, it is difficult to determine whether such deficits predate drug use or are a consequence of chronic drug intake in humans. Animals models are critical for the determination of the directionality of these relationships as cognition can be assessed both before and after voluntary drug consumption. Here, panel members will present data from longitudinal experiments examining the relationships between diverse cognitive domains and classes of drugs of abuse. Dr. Orsini will present unpublished data that reveals the bidirectional relationship between risk-based decision making and synthetic opioid use. Her data finds that pre-drug individual differences in risk taking are not associated with future fentanyl self-administration behavior; however, a history of fentanyl use leads to enduring increases in risk taking which can be mitigated by selective dopamine D2 receptor activation. Dr. Groman will describe her recent work investigating the role of computationally characterized decision-making functions and drug-taking behaviors in rats. First, she will present data indicating that individual differences in the ability of male and female rats to adaptively adjust choice behavior in response to changes in reinforcement contingencies is predictive of drug-taking behaviors across different classes of drugs of abuse (e.g., methamphetamine, cocaine, and oxycodone). She will then describe unpublished data from her lab revealing distinct drug-induced effects on decision-making functions that may provide new insights into pathology of stimulant versus opioid addiction. Dr. Schwendt will present unpublished data on the relationship between working memory and methamphetamine seeking and the effects of metabotropic glutamate receptor 3 (mGlu3) activation on such behaviors, finding that the degree of working memory impairment predicts the magnitude of methamphetamine-seeking. While mGlu3 stimulation improves working memory in a cognitively impaired subgroup of rats, it has no effect on meth-seeking. Collectively, the work presented in this panel will provide new insights into the mechanisms by cognitive dysfunction emerges in substance-dependent populations.
Saturday, January 4, 2024
Session 6 (4-6pm): Interneuron regulation of reward memory
Chair: Kirstie Cummings
Kirstie Cummings – University of Alabama at Birmingham
Kenny Amaya – Tufts University
Max Joffe – University of Pittsburg
Studies of reward memory have primarily focused on contributions of projection neuron populations, most commonly dopaminergic and glutamatergic neurons. In comparison, very few studies have begun to unravel how inhibitory interneurons may participate in these processes to shape and ultimately encode reward memory. In this session, the speakers will share exciting new evidence that emphasizes the critical roles for inhibitory interneurons in driving reward memory process across brain regions. First, Dr. Kirstie Cummings will speak about new insights regarding the mechanisms underlying encoding of distinct reward memories (sucrose and opioids) in prefrontal somatostatin-expressing interneuron ensembles. Next, Dr. Kenny Amaya will present data outlining a role for basolateral amygdala parvalbumin-expressing interneurons in driving oscillatory activity that supports reward seeking. Finally, Dr. Max Joffe will talk about the sex-specific mechanisms underlying alcohol reward encoding and seeking in prefrontal parvalbumin-expressing interneurons. Our discussion goals include 1. Bring attention to the critical yet understudied roles for interneurons in reward memory processes across the brain; 2. Bridge gaps in knowledge regarding how interneurons are working cooperatively with other cell types to encode reward memory; and 3. Discuss the therapeutic potential for targeting reward-related interneuron populations as new therapeutics for substance use disorder. Overall, given the rising interest in inhibitory neuron populations in a variety of memory processes including reward, this timely panel will generate excitement, enthusiasm, and momentum for meeting attendees and the field overall.
Our panel is comprised of all junior researchers (senior postdoc/ new-ish Assistant Professors) from diverse geographical regions and some of whom are from underrepresented backgrounds including first-generation college grad, low socioeconomic status, and historically-excluded racial/ethnic group. In addition, one speaker is a DSPAN scholar who will be on the academic job market this upcoming year.
Session 7 (8-10pm): Retrieval-related reinstatement and transformation as determinants of memory content
Chair: Michael Rugg
Simon Davis – Duke University
Halle Dimsdale-Zucker – UC Riverside
Serra Favila – Brown University
Michael Rugg – UT Dallas
Retrieval related reinstatement (or reactivation) refers to overlap in patterns of neural activity elicited during the encoding of an event with the patterns elicited during its later retrieval. It is assumed that the reinstated activity supplies or at least contributes to the content of the retrieved memory representation. The notion of reinstatement dates back at least to the writings of Semon in the early 20th century. It is central to research on ‘engram cells’ in rodents and, the focus of the proposed symposium, to empirical and theoretical research on the neural underpinnings of human memory. Human research – mainly involving the use of fMRI – has provided compelling evidence for the existence of retrieval-related reinstatement and has begun to explore relationships between different metrics of reinstatement and such variables as the fidelity and subjective vividness of the associated memory representations. Very recently, the concept of memory reinstatement has been joined by that of ‘transformation’ – the idea that a memory of an event may have a representational structure that differs from the online representation of the event that was formed when it was experienced. The four speakers in the proposed symposium are all recent and current contributors to human research on memory reinstatement and transformation. They will describe some of these contributions and their theoretical implications for our understanding of the determinants of memory content. After a brief historical introduction, Rugg will describe recent work on determinants of memory precision and the characterization of the retrieval-related ‘anterior shift’ – an example of memory transformation. Davis will present findings suggesting that retrieved memory representations invariably reflect transformations in content and cortical topography, and that these transformations can be influenced by noninvasive neuromodulation. Dimsdale-Zucker will describe research on how contextual factors at encoding shape the neural patterns associated with successful retrieval. Favila will describe work examining how feature representations, and their cortical localization, change between perception and retrieval. Together, the contributions will provide abundant opportunity for discussion about the factors that mediate between the content of the representation of an event as it is experienced and the content of a subsequently retrieved memory of the event.
Sunday, January 5, 2024
Session 8 (4-6pm): Uncovering the role of inhibition in memory processes
Co-chairs: Jiannis Taxidis & Tristan Geiller
Christine Grienberger – Brandeis University
Linlin Fan – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jiannis Taxidis – University of Toronto
Tristan Geiller – Yale University
Learning and memory rely on complex neural dynamics for encoding, linking and retrieving past experiences. Neuronal inhibition plays a key role in shaping these dynamics via its control on pyramidal cell activity. Pioneering studies in the hippocampus have uncovered a rich diversity of inhibitory interneurons in their morphological, electrophysiological, and molecular characteristics. However, defining the specific role of these subtypes for memory processes in behaving animals has remained largely unexplored. The development of more specific transgenic driver lines, together with new experimental approaches are finally opening a door to the investigation of cell-type-specific interneurons across broad time scales, experimental contexts, and behavioral paradigms. Our session brings together early-career researchers developing and employing state-of-the-art neural recording and manipulation methods in vivo, coupled with complex mouse behaviors, to determine the mechanisms by which interneuron subtypes contribute to memory formation and consolidation. Discussion topics will include: (1) application of modern calcium and voltage imaging techniques to capture interneuron dynamics in vivo, (2) determining the appropriate level of subtype-specificity for capturing interneuronal memory functions, (3) applying causal manipulations of interneuron subtypes in memory processes and (4) computational modeling of inhibitory circuits and their integration with experiments. Presentations and discussions aim to clarify what is known and chart a path forward in understanding how inhibitory networks regulate memory processes within the hippocampus and beyond.
Business Meeting 6:00 – 6:30pm
Banquet 7:30 – 11:00pm