QBI Neuroscience Seminar: “Encoding of emotionally relevant stimuli in hippocampal circuits”

Event Details

Date:

Friday, 06 December 2019 - Friday, 06 December 2019

Time:

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Room:

QBI Level 7 Auditorium

UQ Location:

Queensland Brain Institute (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/neuroscience-seminars

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Assistant Professor Mazen Kheirbek
Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, USA

Title: “Encoding of emotionally relevant stimuli in hippocampal circuits”

Abstract: The hippocampus contributes to both cognition and mood, however how it may perform these two functions remains an area of active investigation. In this talk, I will discuss our recent efforts to understand the encoding properties of hippocampal cell types. First, I will discuss how the dentate gyrus subregion of the hippocampus, and the adult generated granule cells within this structure, encode information, and discriminate between safe and fearful stimuli. Then, I will discuss our recent efforts to understand how distinct, anatomically defined, ventral hippocampal neurons may encode anxiety-provoking environments, and control avoidance behavior. These studies will highlight the rich heterogeneity of hippocampal cell types circuits, and reveal novel functional roles for the hippocampus in encoding emotionally relevant stimuli and generating approach and avoidance behaviors.