Objective
At the heart of our individual personalities lie our memories – be it our first time riding a bike, the school graduation ceremony, or yesterday’s football match. Yet, it is estimated that in the coming decades up to 150 million people worldwide will suffer from dementia. To tackle this surge and identify therapeutic interventions, a thorough understanding of the neuronal mechanisms underlying long-term memory storage is necessary. Research in humans and rodents has identified the hippocampus as the brain’s preeminent structure for memory processing. Yet, for memories to become permanently stored and correctly retrieved, the hippocampus needs to communicate with the rest of the brain. One of the main projection targets of the hippocampus is the mammillary body (MB). Over a century of clinical research and lesion studies in rats have established the importance of the MB to form and retrieve long-lasting memories but its peculiar anatomical location has prevented research to uncover the mechanisms underlying this role.
In this research programme, we will reveal the role of the MB in memory processing at a cellular, circuit, network, and behavioural level in mice. First, we will make use of recently established genetic tools to ascribe precise causal roles for memory processing to individual mouse MB subnuclei. Next, we will leverage my extensive experience with in vivo two-photon microscopy to image calcium activity from identified MB neurons across multiple days of learning. We will then combine these tools to elucidate the role of reciprocal brainstem inhibition. Lastly, we will use high-density silicon probe recordings to simultaneously record activity across cortical, thalamic and hippocampal sites connected to the MB, as animals are actively engaged in memory tasks.
Overall, our research will deliver mechanistic insights into how the MB aids memory processing, which will prove critical for our understanding of how the brain can form life-long memories.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
37075 Goettingen
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.