Project description
Memory stability and neuronal plasticity
The brain has the unique ability to adapt by modifying synapses and reorganising neural circuits, a process known as neuronal plasticity. This flexibility enables learning and the formation of new memories. At the same time, it raises the question of how old memories remain stable despite ongoing changes in neuronal activity and synaptic turnover. To address this, the ERC-funded MEMORAT project aims to investigate auditory continual learning. Researchers will employ rats as a model, which will be trained to recognise up to 100 sounds over several months. Using advanced neural recordings, they will track memory acquisition and consolidation. Overall, the work is expected to reveal how the brain balances memory stability and flexibility.
Objective
How much can we remember and for how long? Decades of key advances in our understanding of synaptic plasticity resulted in a puzzle. On the one hand, memories can be highly stable and organisms are capable of adding new memories without destroying old ones. On the other hand, data and models support neither stability nor lifelong (‘continual’) learning. Many experiments suggest that responses of neuronal populations slowly but inexorably drift (“representational drift”), while synapses spontaneously turnover. At the same time, models predict that memory traces of new experiences tend to interfere destructively with old traces. Here, I will study auditory continual learning in the behaving rat. I will develop a novel behavioral paradigm that will train rats to recognize two new sounds every few days, memorizing up to 100 sounds over 3-4 months of continuous training, and check the stability of memory during that time. My lab will apply state-of-the-art recording techniques in order to document the neural activity during memory acquisition and between training sessions while the rats sleep and consolidate newly acquired memories. I will repeat these studies in a rat model for Alzheimer’s disease, which expresses early memory deficits. These results will be compared with predictions of models for memory in the auditory cortex. At one end, I will test the predictions of a model, based on recently published results, that posits the existence of a few neurons that carry the memory of each learned sound by intrinsic bursting. At the opposite end, I will test predictions of models in which memory resides in the coordinated activity of large, distributed ensembles of neurons. Overall, this project will address the deep puzzles of memory when memory load is high, a regime that has not been studied in animal models.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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91904 Jerusalem
Israel
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