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.
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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, Phillips JW, Podlaski WF, Keemink SW. 2021. Nonlinear computations in spiking neural networks through multiplicative synapses. Peer Community Journal. 1, e68. View
Ramirez Villegas JF, Besserve M, Murayama Y, Evrard HC, Oeltermann A, Logothetis NK. 2021. Coupling of hippocampal theta and ripples with pontogeniculooccipital waves. Nature. 589(7840), 96–102. View
Gridchyn I, Schönenberger P, O’Neill J, Csicsvari JL. 2020. Optogenetic inhibition-mediated activity-dependent modification of CA1 pyramidal-interneuron connections during behavior. eLife. 9, 61106. View
Gridchyn I, Schönenberger P, O’Neill J, Csicsvari JL. 2020. Assembly-specific disruption of hippocampal replay leads to selective memory deficit. Neuron. 106(2), 291–300.e6. View
Käfer K, Nardin M, Blahna K, Csicsvari JL. 2020. Replay of behavioral sequences in the medial prefrontal cortex during rule switching. Neuron. 106(1), 154–165.e6. 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