Project description
The mammalian brain’s capacity to learn and remember
Episodic memory is essential for cognition, but key questions about how the brain stores memories and selects experiences for long-term retention remain unresolved due to research challenges. The ERC-funded MemoryLoci project will explore the remarkable ability of the mammalian brain to learn and remember. The project will identify the substrates of learning-related plasticity that support memory across circuits, synapses and molecules. It will use a novel method to label memory-coding neurons in live animals for permanent, detailed analysis. Advanced all-optical techniques will investigate synaptic plasticity and changes during learning. By studying the murine hippocampal circuit, the project will decode the mechanisms of memory formation and retention, which could lead to new treatments for memory-related disorders in humans.
Objective
In MemoryLoci, we seek to understand the mammalian brain’s remarkable capacity to learn and remember. Episodic memory is central to most cognitive efforts and requires robust mechanisms to encode and retain salient features of our experiences while forgetting spurious details. What are the neural substrates of a memory trace, and how does the brain arbitrate among experiences for long-term storage? These central questions remain unresolved due to pervasive experimental roadblocks to our mechanistic understanding of the circuit-, cellular-, synaptic-, and molecular-level processes underlying information storage in the brain. Our groups have pioneered transformative approaches that now open the way to uncover the substrates of learning-related plasticity that support memory on scales from circuits to synapses and molecules. At the circuit level, we have innovated a method for indelible labeling of functionally identified memory-coding neurons in behaving animals, enabling correlated in-depth transcriptomic, molecular, physiological, and structural analyses of the functionally identified cells. At the synaptic-molecular level, we have pioneered all-optical approaches to directly interrogate synaptic plasticity and stability rules in behaving animals, followed by correlated molecular analysis of learning-related synaptic changes. We will integrate these foundational methodologies into a synergistic research program centered on the murine hippocampal circuit to decode the circuit, cellular, synaptic, and molecular logic of memory formation and retention. Our work will provide a profound understanding of how memories are formed and maintained in neural circuits. Thus, by establishing the circuit-, cellular-, synapse-, and molecular-level mechanisms of memory, our studies will revolutionize approaches to selectively modify the content of stored memories, which beckons new directions to treat memory pathologies in humans.
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.
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.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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
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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-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-SyG
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1083 Budapest
Hungary
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