Speaker:
Matt Nolan, Centre for Integrative Physiology, University of Edinburgh, UK
Abstract:
Neural circuits in the entorhinal cortex encode location through grid-like firing fields, while simultaneously generating oscillatory activity at theta and gamma frequencies. These properties are well characterised making these circuits a promising focus for establishing cellular mechanisms underlying cognitive functions. I will describe experimental and theoretical investigations that demonstrate how a single local circuit mechanism can underly generation of grid firing fields and theta-nested gamma patterned network oscillations. I will outline how systematic exploration of circuit properties leads to novel insights into the relationships between recurrent synaptic connectivity, neural computation and neural oscillations. These insights may have implications for psychiatric disorders in which modified excitatory and inhibitory connectivity accompanies altered altered gamma oscillations.