A team of scientists discovered how newly identified neural circuits in the brain's hippocampal formation play a critical role in object-location learning and memory. The study was published in Nature Neuroscience.
Loss of object location memory is one of the key impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia in the elderly. These new findings in hippocampal circuit mechanisms provide an intriguing new target to counteract AD-related memory impairments.
Authors how that the afferent circuitry of CA1-projecting subicular neurons is biased by inputs from CA1 inhibitory neurons and the visual cortex, but lacks input from the entorhinal cortex. Efferents of the CA1-projecting subiculum neurons also target the perirhinal cortex, an area strongly implicated in object–place learning.
They identify a critical role for CA1-projecting subicular neurons in object-location learning and memory, and show that this projection modulates place-specific activity of CA1 neurons and their responses to displaced objects. Together, the experiments reveal a novel pathway by which cortical inputs, particularly those from the visual cortex, reach the hippocampal output region CA1.
"Our study was made possible by new viral genetic based mapping approaches for examining connectivity between structures. These new mapping tools enabled us to identify novel circuits within and between the hippocampus and cortex," said the senior author.
The researchers used monosynaptic rabies retrograde tracing and herpes (H129)-based anterograde tracing to establish new cortico-hippocampal circuitry associated with subiculum (SUB) projections to hippocampal CA1.
The team revealed the hippocampal sub-circuit mechanism highly relevant to learning and memory disorders including Alzheimer's disease. These findings may be used to better treat Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders, delay their onset, and possibly prevent them from developing in the first place.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-019-0496-y
Latest News
Chromatin and RNA interacti…
By newseditor
Posted 18 May
Why patients with ARID1A mu…
By newseditor
Posted 18 May
Smuggling small molecule mo…
By newseditor
Posted 18 May
Men with gene mutations are…
By newseditor
Posted 17 May
B cell oxidative phosphoryl…
By newseditor
Posted 17 May
Other Top Stories
A protein controlling complex neuronal branching identified!
Read more
Protein synthesis from non-traditional start site!
Read more
Why women with many children show evidence of accelerated aging?
Read more
Undruggable target now made druggable!
Read more
Apoptosis spreads through perpetuating waves!
Read more
Protocols
Breast cancer-on-chip for p…
By newseditor
Posted 16 May
Methods for making and obse…
By newseditor
Posted 15 May
Mime-seq 2.0: a method to s…
By newseditor
Posted 13 May
Improved detection of DNA r…
By newseditor
Posted 09 May
Single-cell adhesive profil…
By newseditor
Posted 07 May
Publications
Immunotherapy for colorecta…
By newseditor
Posted 18 May
Single-cell multiplex chrom…
By newseditor
Posted 18 May
Autophagy preferentially de…
By newseditor
Posted 18 May
Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and…
By newseditor
Posted 18 May
GLP-1-directed NMDA recepto…
By newseditor
Posted 18 May
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
A chemical biology/modular…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Aug
Single-molecule covalent ma…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jul
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar