Research summary
Several human health disorders—from autism spectrum disorder to Alzheimer’s disease—may stem from disrupted information processing. This means that learning more about how the brain encodes, stores and uses information is not only critical for understanding normal brain function, but also for developing new treatments for a variety of brain disorders.
Dr. Sheena Josselyn, Canada Research Chair in Memory Function and Dysfunction, is exploring how memories are made, expressed and sometimes forgotten. Her work in mice has already defined the engram (an ensemble of neurons that store a memory) as the fundamental biological unit of memory. Now, she and her research team are developing advanced optical strategies to determine how the spatial and temporal pattern of neuronal activation influences memory retrieval. They are also developing a new technology to examine an engram across the brain rather than in just one particular region. Their findings will vastly increase our understanding of how memory works.