We are happy to announce yet another interesting speaker in our onLINe seminar series on Friday 16.04. at 2 pm. Prof. Johannes Letzkus, University of Freiburg, will give a talk on: ’A thalamo-cortical top-down circuit for associative memory’.
Sensory neocortex is a critical substrate for memory. Despite its strong connection with the thalamus, the role of direct thalamo-cortical communication in memory remains elusive. We performed chronic in vivo 2-photon calcium imaging of thalamic synapses in auditory cortex layer 1, a major locus of cortical associations. Combined with optogenetics, viral tracing, whole-cell recording and computational modeling, we find that the higher-order thalamus is required for associative learning, and transmits memory-related information that closely correlates with acquired behavioral relevance. In turn, these signals are tightly and dynamically controlled by local presynaptic inhibition. Our results not only identify higher-order thalamus as a highly plastic source of cortical top-down information, but also reveal a level of computational flexibility in layer 1 that goes significantly beyond hard-wired connectivity.
We hope to see many of you there,
your onLINe organizers (please contact Sanja Mikulovic to get the Zoom link)