Eduardo de Robertis Plenary Lecture

ALEJANDRO F. SCHINDER

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 2nd Congress of the Federation of Latin American Neuroscience; 2016

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias (SAN)

Activity and neurogenesis-mediated circuit remodeling in the hippocampusAlejandro F. SchinderLaboratorio de Plasticidad Neuronal, Instituto Leloir (IIBBA ? CONICET), Buenos Airesaschinder@leloir.org.arEduardo De Robertis ConferenceThe dentate gyrus is the first relay station in information flow from the entorhinal cortex towards the hippocampus, and it plays a crucial role in memory processing. A remarkable feature of the dentate circuitry is the unique degree of plasticity conveyed by its ability to generate and integrate new principal neurons (granule cells, GCs) through life. Adult-born GCs are important for specific forms of memory, such as those that demand fine discrimination of subtle differences, particularly during spatial tasks. My laboratory has focused on understanding the modifications of local dentate networks produced by the incorporation of newly generated GCs, their interaction with the microenvironment (niche), and their functional implications. Adult-born GCs develop and connect over several weeks before they become mature. Our recent findings reveal that new GCs may play distinct roles in memory encoding as they walk through the road of development. In addition, developing GCs undergo two critical periods of high sensitivity to electrical signals arising from their local microenvironment. At these times, their functional profile becomes tagged by behavior, resulting in long-lasting changes in connectivity and function. In my talk I will discuss recent approaches combining opto- and chemogenetics that we have used to understand the function of developing GCs and the mechanisms that transduce behavioral experiences into changes in the integration and plasticity of new GCs.