Although as adults we are able to recollect detailed episodic and spatial memories for events happening decades earlier, this ability – to form, store and recall episodic and spatial memories – is not mature at birth. Indeed, the earliest memories most of us have are only from ~3years of age – a phenomenon known as childhood amnesia. The research objective of my lab is to elucidate the neural mechanisms that support the development of episodic and spatial memory. To this end, we study the development of hippocampal functioning and hippocampal-cortical communication in relation to the emergence of memory in pre-weanling rodents. Research of this kind has the potential to deepen our understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of episodic and spatial memory, give insight into the requirement of healthy wiring of the memory system and may be used to identify children at risk of suffering cognitive problems later in life.

The techniques we use are:

• Chronic single-unit recording in the hippocampus in freely moving rat pups/adults
• Chronic hippocampal-cortical recording in freely moving rat pups/adults
• Training and testing rat pups/adults on memory tasks
• Early life stress interventions (limited bedding procedure)
• Large scale analysis of single neuron and population activity as well as LFP analyses
• fMRI imaging of ex-vivo brains

We are looking for enthusiastic and motivated BSc and MSc interns to join the lab!

Example internship questions:

• Does hippocampal replay underlie the development of episodic and spatial memory?
• Does mature memory depend on effective hippocampal-cortical communication?
• Can the environment (such as stress) influence the maturation of memory?

Neural recording in rat pups.

Left: picture of a pre-weanling pup.
Middle: EEG trace showing a sharp-wave ripples complex.

Right: place cells from pups

If you are interested please get in touch with Freyja Olafsdottir- f.olafsdottir@neurophysiology.nl.

Recommended reading:

• Olafsdottir, H. F., Bush, D. & Barry, C. The Role of Hippocampal Replay in Memory and Planning. Curr Biol 28, R37-R50, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.10.073 (2018).
• Olafsdottir, H. F., Carpenter, F. & Barry, C. Coordinated grid and place cell replay during rest. Nat Neurosci 19, 792-794, doi:10.1038/nn.4291 (2016).
• Olafsdottir, H. F., Carpenter, F. & Barry, C. Task Demands Predict a Dynamic Switch in the Content of Awake Hippocampal Replay. Neuron 96, 925-935 e926, doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2017.09.035 (2017).
• Wills, T. J., Cacucci, F., Burgess, N. & O’Keefe, J. Development of the hippocampal cognitive map in preweanling rats. Science 328, 1573-1576, doi:10.1126/science.1188224 (2010).

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