Visual-spatial processing within the retrosplenial cortex

Learning about our spatial environments and how to navigate within these environments is critical for all species. It is a long-standing goal of neuroscience to understand how our brains support these processes. This goal is becoming ever more important as it has become apparent that spatial processing is particularly sensitive to both normal ageing and pathological ageing, such as Alzheimer's disease.

The retrosplenial cortex appears to be particularly important for processing information about our environments. A recent study used an in vivo imaging technique (two-photon imaging) to identify patterns of neuronal activity that developed as animals learnt a spatial memory task; the more stable representations at the end of training were related to how well the animals performed the task. The retrosplenial cortex also contains cells that respond to visual stimuli and the movement. Combining visual-spatial and movement information at a neuronal level could be critical for the retrosplenial cortex's role in navigation.

This project will build on these previous findings to try and understand, at a network level, how these spatial representations within the retrosplenial cortex are formed. An important question is how connections with other brain regions such as the hippocampus and visual cortex help these representations to develop and how the interaction across these brain structures changes from when an environment is new to when it has become familiar and well-learnt. The goals of the project will be achieved using a combining behaviour with in vivo neuronal imaging and in vivo electrophysiology. In addition, chemogenetic and optogenetic approaches would provide a means to temporarily inactivate or stimulate different pathways within the network to determine the effects of loss or gain of function. Together, this will help identify specific neuronal pathways related to the retrosplenial cortex that underpin the acquisition and retention of spatially-related representations.