Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MEMCIRCUIT (Deconstruction of a neural circuit for working memory: hubs, coding mechanisms, and signal routing)
Período documentado: 2022-08-01 hasta 2024-01-31
At the end of the action, we could clearly demonstrate the feasibility of combining cellular-resolution brain recordings in human subjects and in trained animals (mice) performing comparable cognitive tasks. This line of research should propel forward efforts in the cognitive and systems neuroscience research community to formulate general, species-independent principles underlying higher cognitive functions and intelligent behaviour.
To address our research questions in animals, we developed two different behavioural tasks for mice that allowed us to tap into the neuronal mechanisms of comparable cognitive functions. We could show that the neuromodulator dopamine plays a significant role when animals learn new tasks and flexibly associate sensory stimuli, own actions and rewarding outcomes. We then acquired large-scale recordings from both the rodent and the human brain in the identical working memory task, which is allowing us to make unique and unprecedented head-to-head, cross-species comparisons.
Our achievements in the field of cellular-resolution neurotechnology are providing the backbone for innovative new projects that will involve the use of chronically implanted brain-computer-interfaces for patients with disorders of cognition and mental health. We have put forward guidelines to support a new culture of neurotechnology research and development in which engineers work together with clinicians, neuroscientists, data scientists, ethicists and social scientists to co-create neurotechnological solutions for the most urgent healthcare challenges, with patients’ and caregivers’ needs at the center of all efforts. Our ongoing and future work will therefore heavily rely on and profit from close collaborations with researchers from these diverse fields.