Prof. Inna Slutsky

The hippocampus serves as a critical hub for experience-dependent neuronal plasticity, essential for encoding and retrieving memories. Unlike primary sensory cortices, where plasticity is largely confined to early development, the hippocampus exhibits lifelong structural and functional plasticity. While Hebbian plasticity underpins memory formation and storage, it inherently challenges network stability. This plasticity-stability dilemma, evident in both artificial and biological neural networks, is particularly acute in the hippocampus, which undergoes continuous remodeling in response to extrinsic and intrinsic perturbations. Disruptions in this delicate balance are linked to memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, emphasizing the need to understand how the hippocampus maintains functional stability amidst ongoing changes. Elucidating these stabilizing mechanisms is key to understanding memory persistence and forgetting.

Our lab investigates five central questions:

1. Which parameters of hippocampal activity are regulated in response to persistent perturbations?

2. What is the role of sleep and torpor in homeostatic regulation?

3. What molecular machinery underlies this regulation?

4. How do homeostatic mechanisms impact memory function while restoring hippocampal activity?

5. Is homeostatic regulation impaired in Alzheimer’s disease, leading to aberrant brain activity and memory decline?

To address these questions, we combine single-cell calcium imaging and electrophysiological recordings in behaving mice with computational analyses of neuronal dynamics, brain states, and behavioral memory assays. To identify components of the homeostatic machinery and their cellular effects, we employ molecular tools, high-resolution imaging, and intracellular and extracellular electrophysiology in mouse and human neurons.