Project description
Revealing the neuroanatomy of remembering important events
Human memory involves the ability to preserve and recover information about an important event – particularly if the event surprised us or impacted us emotionally. To understand how it all works, the EU-funded RememberEx project will study direct recordings from human hippocampus, amygdala, nucleus accumbens, ventral midbrain and cortex. It will explore the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying amygdala–hippocampal–cortical coupling that lead to better memory for emotional stimuli. It will also extend the hippocampal role in detecting unpredicted stimuli to define its role in orchestrating cortical dynamics in unpredictable contexts. The knowledge gained from this project is a fundamental requirement for designing therapeutic interventions for patients with memory deficits and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
Objective
Our memory system is optimised for remembering the exceptional over the mundane. We remember better those events that violate predictions generated by the prevailing context, particularly because of surprise or emotional impact. Understanding how we form and retrieve long-term memories for important or salient events is critical for combating the rapidly growing incidence of pathologies associated with memory dysfunction with huge socio-econonomic burden. Human lesion and non-invasive functional imaging data, motivated by findings from animal models, have identified subcortical structures that are critical for upregulating hippocampal function during salient event memory. However, mechanistic understanding of these processes in humans remains scarce, and requires better experimental approaches such as direct intracranial recordings from, and focal electrical stimulation of, these subcortical structures.
This project will characterise human subcortico-cortical neuronal circuit dynamics associated with enhanced episodic memory for salient stimuli by studying direct recordings from human hippocampus, amygdala, nucleus accumbens, ventral midbrain and cortex. Within this framework, I will elucidate the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying amygdala-hippocampal-cortical coupling that lead to better memory for emotional stimuli, extend the hippocampal role in detecting unpredicted stimuli to define its role in orchestrating cortical dynamics in unpredictable contexts, and discover the neuronal response profile of the human mesolimbic dopamine system during salient stimulus encoding. The predicted results, based on my own preliminary data, will offer several conceptual breakthroughs, particularly regarding hippocampal function and the role of dopaminergic ventral midbrain in memory. The knowledge gained from this project is a fundamental requirement for designing therapeutic interventions for patients with memory deficits and other neuropsychiatric disorders.
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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Keywords
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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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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.
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.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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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-2018-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28040 MADRID
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.