Csicsvari Group
Systems Neuroscience
Memory formation is crucial for learning new facts and skills. This process of encoding, storing, and ultimately recalling memories involves complex interactions between various brain regions and neurons in embedded circuits that form complex code to encode these memory traces. The Csicsvari group studies how learning is implemented in the brain.
During learning, new memories are acquired and subsequently consolidated to ensure their successful later recall. The Csicsvari group focuses on understanding how learning leads to memory formation in neuronal circuits by investigating the neuronal system mechanisms of memory formation and stabilization. They also investigate the mnemonic role of neuronal populations and their interactions in brain areas involved in spatial memory processing. The group seeks to understand how neuronal circuits process information and form spatial memories by recording the activity of many neurons in different brain regions during spatial learning tasks and sleep. In their research, the group uses optogenetic methods to selectively manipulate neuronal activity in different brain areas.
Group Leader
Administrative Support
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Team
Current Projects
Oscillatory interactions in working memory | Role of hippocampal formation in spatial learning | Activation of brain structures using light sensitive channels to study memory formation
Publications
Nardin M, Käfer K, Stella F, Csicsvari JL. 2023. Theta oscillations as a substrate for medial prefrontal-hippocampal assembly interactions. Cell Reports. 42(9), 113015. View
Safavi S, Panagiotaropoulos TI, Kapoor V, Ramirez Villegas JF, Logothetis NK, Besserve M. 2023. Uncovering the organization of neural circuits with Generalized Phase Locking Analysis. PLoS Computational Biology. 19(4), e1010983. View
Gambino G, Bhik-Ghanie R, Giglia G, Puig MV, Ramirez Villegas JF, Zaldivar D. 2022. Editorial: Neuromodulatory ascending systems: Their influence at the microscopic and macroscopic levels. Frontiers in Neural Circuits. 16, 1028154. View
Nardin M. 2022. On the encoding, transfer, and consolidation of spatial memories. Institute of Science and Technology Austria. View
Ben Simon Y, Käfer K, Velicky P, Csicsvari JL, Danzl JG, Jonas PM. 2022. A direct excitatory projection from entorhinal layer 6b neurons to the hippocampus contributes to spatial coding and memory. Nature Communications. 13, 4826. View
ReX-Link: Jozsef Csicsvari
Career
since 2011 Professor, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
2008 – 2011 MRC Senior Scientist (tenured), MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, University of Oxford, UK
2003 – 2008 MRC Senior Scientist (tenure-track), MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, University of Oxford, UK
2001 – 2002 Research Associate, Center for Behavioral and Molecular Neuroscience, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA
1999 – 2001 Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Behavioral and Molecular Neuroscience, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA
1999 PhD, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA
Selected Distinctions
2011 ERC Starting Grant
2010 Title of Ad Hominem Professor in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford
