Experimental Psychology Seminar - Roles of hippocampus and neocortex in learning and memory in mice – from synapse to behaviour

Speaker: Michael Kohl, Oxford

We recently identified a left-right dissociation of synaptic plasticity in the mouse hippocampus. To investigate possible effects on behaviour, we used optogenetics to unilaterally silence hippocampal CA3 pyramidal cells in mice performing hippocampus-dependent memory tasks. Whilst silencing of either the left or the right CA3 caused a short-term memory deficit, strikingly, only left CA3 silencing impaired long-term memory. Our data suggests that memory is routed via distinct left-right pathways within the mouse hippocampus. We are currently investigating whether this hemispheric specialisation extends to neocortical structures involved in associative memory.