Thursday, January 8, 2026
Session 1: Dave Olton Data Blitz
Time: 4-6pm
Chair: Tim Allen, Florida International University
Session 2: History of the Winter Conference on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
Time: 8-10pm
This symposium will review the history of the Winter Conference on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory held in Park City since 1977, discuss key topics in the field over the past 50 years, and facilitate a discussion of what the next 50 years may bring.
Speakers:
- Lynn Nadel, University of Arizona
- Os Steward, University of California Irvine
- James McClelland, Stanford University
Friday, January 9, 2026
Session 3: Synaptic plasticity: Does it have anything to do with memory?
Time 8-10am
Chair: Ulli Bayer, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Plasticity at excitatory synapses in the hippocampus, such as long-term potentiation (LTP), is essential for learning and memory and disruptions to synaptic plasticity occur in numerous nervous system disorders associated with impaired cognition. This session will focus on recent advances in our understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlling synaptic structure and function during synaptic plasticity. How coordinated changes in postsynaptic and presynaptic ultrastructure (Harris) and disease-associated variants that alter the functions of NMDA-type glutamate receptors (Roche), the protein kinase CaMKII (Bayer), and the protein phosphatase calcineurin (Dell’Acqua) impact synaptic plasticity and signaling will be discussed.
Speakers:
- Ulli Bayer, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Rare CaMKII variants impair synaptic plasticity by gain or loss of function
- Mark Dell’Acqua, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Disruption of Synaptic Excitation-Transcription Coupling by PPP3CA/Calcineurin
Neurodevelopmental Disorder Mutations
- Kristen Harris, University of Texas
Ultrastructure of synaptic plasticity
- Katherine Roche, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Excitatory synapse dysfunction in rare GRIN variant disorders
Session 4: Aging and Dementia
Time: 4-6pm
Chair: Craig Stark, University of California, Irvine
Aging and Alzheimer’s disease are both marked by cognitive decline with a particular emphasis on memory. In this session, we will cover recent work spanning across species to understand how and why memory changes with aging and AD and to offer insights from this work on how this impacts potential treatments or interventions.
Speakers:
- Tara Moore, Boston University
Mesenchymal Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Ameliorate Age-Related Deficits in Working Memory and in vivo MRI Measures of White Matter Structure and Function in Rhesus Monkeys.
- Sara Burke, University of Florida
Metabolic and Cognitive dysfunction in an APOE4 Knock-in Rat Model of Alzheimer’s Disease Risk
- Arnold Bakker, Johns Hopkins University
Too Active for Its Own Good? Hippocampal Hyperactivity and the Path to Alzheimer’s disease
- Craig Stark, UC Irvine
Don’t forget about memory: The vital role for memory tasks in Alzheimer’s disease detection and tracking
Session 5: New computational models of learning and memory
Time 8-10pm
Chair: Anna Schapiro, University of Pennsylvania
This symposium introduces a new generation of modeling approaches to understand learning and memory. We showcase models that make predictions across multiple levels of granularity—from responses in single neurons in the fly to the behavior of MTL-lesioned human participants. While the data come from different modalities, the computational frameworks help us identify common motifs, including the importance of sequence processing, multi-modal constraints on spatial perception, and multiple timescales of learning.
Speakers:
- Mark Plitt, UC Berkeley
Neuromodulatory control of rapid plasticity in a head direction circuit
- Daniel Levenstein, Yale University
Sequential predictive learning is a unifying theory for hippocampal representation and replay
- Anna Schapiro, University of Pennsylvania
Learning rate and sparsity as key organizing parameters in the hippocampus and beyond
- Tyler Bonnen, UC Berkeley
Sequential processing underlies perceptual functions of the MTL
Saturday, January 10, 2026
Session 6: Cortico-Hippocampal Circuit Dynamics Underlying Learning Rules and Memory Functions
Time: 8-10am
Chair: Jayeeta Basu, New York University
Speakers:
- Annabelle Singer, Georgia Tech & Emory University
- Andre Fenton, New York University
- Attila Losonczy, UT Southwestern Medical Center
- Jayeeta Basu, New York University
Session 7: Memory systems: What are they good for? (…absolutely nothing or say it again?)
Time: 4-6pm
Chair: Charan Ranganath, University of California Davis
Speakers:
- Charan Ranganath, University of California Davis
- Mick Rugg, University of Texas Dallas
- Kari Hoffman, Vanderbilt University
- TBD
Business Meeting 6:00 – 6:30pm
Banquet Dinner 7:30 – 11:00pm
Sunday, January 11, 2026
Session 8: Space, Time, and Memory in the Hippocampal Formation
Time: 8-10am
Chair: Jim Knierim, Johns Hopkins University
Speakers:
- Selmaan Chettih, Columbia University
Barcoding of episodic memories in the hippocampus of a food-caching bird
- Jennifer Li, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
Valence based spatial learning in larval zebrafish
- Jim Knierim, Johns Hopkins University
Multiplexed time, context, and odor coding in lateral entorhinal cortex
- Beth Buffalo, University of Washington
The primate hippocampus constructs a temporal scaffold of experience
Session 9: Engrams – The next Generation
Time: 4-6pm
Chair: Tomás Ryan, Trinity College
Speakers:
- Laura DeNardo, University of California, Los Angeles
Neural circuit mechanisms of long-term memory
- Yasunori Hayashi, Kyoto University
Transformation of a locally activated hippocampal code for space to a cortical contextual engram
- Andrew Holmes, National Institute of Health
Astrocyte modulation of amygdala-mediated memory representations
- Tomás Ryan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland:
Sickness memory engrams modulate anticipatory immunity
*Program is subject to updates and minor changes