Project Overview

Our brains have their own GPS – the hippocampus, a region where special neurons, called ‘place cells’, help us navigate and store memories. However, when the hippocampus is damaged, our internal map can become unreliable, affecting our memory and orientation abilities. Our goal is to unravel this complex coding system. We aim to refine the tools we use to study the brain’s spatial coding by developing a new computational framework. This framework will let us test different theories about how the brain maps space and compare them to actual brain activity. In our initial studies, funded by the Brain Canada Future Leaders grant, we discovered that the shape of an environment influences how place cells behave. This finding is vital because it tells us that place cells have a reliable way of coding space that isn’t easily altered, providing a consistent internal map.

Now, we want to take this a step further. We plan to perform large-scale recordings of neurons in freely moving mice, capturing the activity of thousands of neurons as they navigate through different spaces. By comparing this rich dataset to computational models, we can better understand how the hippocampus creates and maintains spatial maps. Moreover, we’re not just focused on the hippocampus alone. We’re also looking into how the entorhinal cortex, another brain region involved in navigation and memory, interacts with the hippocampus to support our spatial understanding. By achieving these objectives, we hope to provide a new standard for studying brain function, not only in healthy individuals but also in conditions where memory and navigation are compromised. Our ultimate aim is to pave the way for advances in our understanding of brain-based navigation and memory systems, with the potential to inform new treatments for memory-related diseases.

Principal Investigator

Mark Brandon , Douglas Hospital Research Centre