This lecture is organised by the Programme on Mind and Machine and The Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour

In learning, repeated experiences might be integrated individually as they occur, or they might be combined within dedicated time windows, possibly promoting quality control. Pico Caroni will discuss recent findings from his laboratory providing evidence that in Pavlovian, incremental, and incidental learning, related information acquired within time windows of 5 hours (time units for learning) is combined to determine whether and what mice learn. Trials required for learning have to occur within 5 hours, when learning-related shared partial cues can produce association and interference with learning. Upon acquisition, cFos expression is elevated during 5 hours throughout specific system-wide neuronal assemblies. Time unit function depends on network activity and local cFos activity, which is required for distant assembly recruitment through network activity and distant BDNF. Activation of learning-related cFos assemblies is sufficient and necessary for time unit function. Therefore, learning processes consist of dedicated 5-hour time units, involving maintenance of specific system-wide neuronal assemblies through network activity and cFos expression.

For further information, please contact Fiona Woods at fiona.woods@cncb.ox.ac.uk

About the speaker

Pico Caroni received his PhD in Biochemistry from ETH Zurich and was a postdoctoral fellow with Reginald Kelly at UCSF and Martin Schwab at the University of Zurich, where they discovered Nogo-A as a myelin-derived inhibitor of neurite outgrowth. Caroni joined the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel in 1989 and is now a senior group leader. His main interest is in the mechanisms controlling the formation, maintenance, and turnover of synaptic connections in the hippocampus. In 2012, he received the Théodore Ott Prize for his lifetime achievements in neurobiological research.