Christine Grienberger, Ph.D.

Research

The Grienberger lab will study the complex neural computations that drive experience-based learning. For an animal to respond and adapt to an ever-changing environment, its brain must remain poised to rewire its neuronal circuitry based on day-to-day events, a flexibility known as plasticity. As a postdoctoral fellow, I discovered a new form of plasticity that produces learning-dependent changes in brain activity after a single experience—in this case, a mouse learning where a drop of sugar water would appear. I found that this information was encoded by activation of specialized “place cells” in the hippocampus, the brain’s seat of learning and memory, and that cells in the entorhinal cortex (EC), which processes signals to and from the hippocampus, are necessary for this boost in place-cell activity. Now, using cutting-edge techniques for tracking and controlling neural activity while an animal is engaged in active learning, I will examine how interactions between the cortex and the hippocampus instruct the hippocampus network in how to form memories. My work could lead to new strategies for tackling conditions, from Alzheimer’s disease to aging, in which learning and memory are impaired.