Project
Spatial memory consolidation networks
The ability to navigate the environment is an indispensable prerequisite for adaptive behavior. In most behavioral contexts, recourse to spatial memory representations is required for successful navigation. These contexts can be as diverse as recalling the way to the bathroom in a dark hotel room, following a local’s directions to reach a tourist attraction or steering a refugee boat across the Mediterranean Sea. Previous research suggests that memory-guided navigation draws flexibly on multiple spatial representations that are supported by an extensive hippocampo−neocortical network. How the passage of time during consolidation affects representation of spatial memoranda within this network remains unclear. Studies in animals and humans further suggest that consolidation may not only render memory less susceptible to interference, but may also transform spatial representations directly. Our project investigates the dynamics of spatial memory network consolidation with an approach that integrates clinical and cognitive neuroscience. Our central hypothesis is that the changing role of hippocampal and neocortical network nodes across time not only reflects increasing resilience to interference, but also a significant interaction between time and type of spatial memoranda. We will create behavioral conditions, in which recruitment of observer-dependent (egocentric) and observer-independent (allocentric) spatial representations and memory delays are systematically manipulated. In four work packages (WPs), we will combine behavioral testing in virtual environments with patient studies and functional MRI. We will investigate healthy controls and three complimentary clinical models of transient and permanent hippocampal dysfunction to disentangle hippocampal and neocortical contributions to consolidation of spatial representations. In WP1, we will study the effects of consolidation on network activation in healthy humans. In WP2, we will study the effects of transient global amnesia on encoding and early consolidation of spatial memories. In WP3, we will study the effects GABA-ergic drugs on early consolidation during general anesthesia. In WP4, we will study the effect of surgical resections of the hippocampus on the long-term consolidation and retrieval of spatial memoranda learned at different times preoperatively. Across WPs, it is asked how consolidation of spatial information changes the probability of representing spatial relationships relative to a subject’s body coordinates. We hypothesize that this factor critically determines hippocampo-neocortical interplay during consolidation.
Image Navigation task setting. Source, Jürgen Hohmuth
Team
Publications
State-dependent signatures of anti-NMDA-receptor encephalitis: a dynamic functional connectivity study
Nina von Schwanenflug, Stephan Krohn, Josephine Heine, Friedemann Paul, Harald Prüss, Carsten Finke
bioRxiv
Transdiagnostic hippocampal damage patterns in neuroimmunological disorders
Josephine Heine, Harald Prüß, Michael Scheel, Alexander U. Brandt, Stefan M. Gold, Thorsten Bartsch, Friedemann Paul, Carsten Finke
NeuroImage: Clinical
Clinical and magnetic resonance imaging outcome predictors in pediatric anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor Encephalitis
Frederik Bartels, Stephan Krohn, Marc Nikolaus, Jessika Johannsen, Ronny Wickström, Mareike Schimmel, Martin Häusler, Andrea Berger, Markus Breu, Markus Blankenburg, Johannes Stoffels, Oliver Hendricks, Günther Bernert, Gerd Kurlemann, Ellen Knierim, Angela Kaindl, Kevin Rostásy, Carsten Finke
Annals of Neurology
Early volumetric changes of hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex following medial temporal lobe resection.
Anna Pajkert, Christoph J Ploner, Thomas-Nicolas Lehmann, Veronica A Witte, Frank Oltmanns, Werner Sommer, Martin Holtkamp, Hauke R Heekeren, Carsten Finke
European Journal of Neuroscience
Propofol modulates early memory consolidation in humans
Daa Un Moon, Nazli Esfahani-Bayerl, Carsten Finke, Daniel J Salchow, Mario Menk, Simon Bayerl, Richard Kempter and Christoph J Ploner
eNeuro
Integrating across memory episodes: developmental trends
Yee Lee Shing , Carsten Finke, Martina Hoffmann, Anna Pajkert, Hauke R Heekeren and Christoph J Ploner
PLoS One
Disentangling hippocampal and amygdala contribution to human anxiety-like behaviour
Dominik R Bach, Martina Hoffmann, Carsten Finke, Rene Hurlemann and Christoph J Ploner
Journal of Neuroscience