A comparative approach to the consolidation of kinship memory

In the first funding period, the group of Michael Brecht investigated how conspecifics are represented in the ventral hippocampus (Rao et al., 2019). Subsequently, we assessed the role of the lateral septum – a major downstream target of hippocampus – in social representation. The evidence accumulated by our group suggests that the lateral septum plays a decisive role in kinship behavior (Clemens, Wang and Brecht, 2020). Kinship is a key determinant of social behavior according to personal experience (family bonds) and evolutionary theory (Hamilton, 1964). In the second funding phase we will investigate how kinship bonds are formed and consolidated. Specifically, we will investigate how pre- and postnatal experience modifies circuits in the lateral septum such that ‘kinship memories’ are laid down and kinship bonds form. We will study the unique synapses on somatic spines of lateral septum neurons in a joint project with PI Marina Mikhaylova. We will also investigate polymodal human kinship memory.

Archive – A03 (SFB1315/1)

Graphical abstract: Our project investigates the mechanisms and consolidation of kinship memory. The project sets out from our finding of the last funding period that lesions to the lateral septum disrupt olfactory kinship memory in rats (top). In the new funding phase, we investigate the synaptic underpinnings of kinship memory, specifically we ask if the unusual somatic spines contribute to the consolidation of kinship memory in rat. We will also investigate human kinship memory. We expect humans to have powerful abilities to assess kinship visually. Hence, we ask, if the human septum mediates polymodal (in particular visual and auditory) kinship memory.