Simultaneous Functional Calcium Imaging with Quartet® for studying odor memory circuits and developing second generation Quartet®

Episodic memory refers to an ensemble of memory processes and is the capacity to recollect where and when past events occurred, which involves subjective consciousness and a sense of time in retrieving past experiences. The hippocampus is essential for representing spatiotemporal context and establishing its association with the sensory details of daily life to form episodic memories and the olfactory cortex shares exclusive anatomical connections with the hippocampus as a result of their common evolutionary history. This makes olfaction a privileged sense for accessing memories. The AON receives unidirectional, monosynaptic inputs from the CA1 and it has been shown that hippocampal inputs to the AON can alter olfactory perception and odour-guided behaviors. The HPC-AON pathway provides a novel circuit model for studying fundamental aspects of human episodic memory. Here we propose to develop optical imaging methods for studying odor memory circuit. simultaneous image acquisition using Quartet® to monitor neuronal activity between the ventral hippocampus and AON. This will help to understand the circuit mechanisms between the ventral hippocampus and olfactory cortex and also demonstrate that odour memory information is delivered by hippocampal inputs to the AON. We also propose to develop second generation Quartet® (Ver.2) with improved accessories.

Faculty Supervisor:

Junchul Kim

Student:

Roshni Christo

Partner:

Neurescence Inc.

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Toronto