Brain rhythms reflect synchronized activity across many neurons and thus provide a means for studying how groups of neurons coordinate their activity during complex cognitive functions such as learning. My work uses multisite tetrode recordings from behaving animals to investigate how brain rhythms affect memory operations, particularly in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. The main goals of my work are to understand the functional significance of the different types of rhythms within the entorhinal-hippocampal network and to uncover their underlying mechanisms. Understanding the relationship between brain rhythms and behavior, and determining which circuits are involved, is expected to provide novel insights into diseases associated with aberrant rhythmic activity, such as schizophrenia, autism, and Alzheimer's disease.
Key Research Areas:
Learning, brain rhythms, memory, hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, schizophrenia, autism, Alzheimer's disease
