Cognition, Behavior, and Memory
Author: Lautaro Mundel | Email: lautaroezequielmundel@gmail.com
Lautaro Mundel1°2°, Francisco Domato1°2°, Cecilia Martinez2°, Emilio Kropff2°
1° Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales
2° Fundación Instituto Leloir
The hippocampus is a brain structure highly conserved throughout the evolution of mammals and has a fundamental role in the formation of memories and spatial orientation. It contains place cells, neurons that associate their activity to a specific position in the environment, allowing the construction of an internal representation of the place being visited. The first studies on place cells were carried out in rodents, although there are similar findings in other mammals and even humans. It has been recently discovered in mice and bats that, in addition to encoding the position of an individual, place cells can encode the position of a conspecific in mimicry tasks.
To strengthen this hypothesis with new evidence, we will study neuronal activity in the CA1 region of the hippocampus of pairs of adult rats while they perform a task that requires them to act coordinately. We will implant tetrode arrays to record local field potential and neuronal activity. In particular, we will analyze whether the oscillations of the local field potential of each individual are associated with the encoding of the position of the other.