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Admission to this internship program is by application only and is at the discretion of the individual research scientists - space is limited. The program is open to all undergraduates at Rutgers and NJIT. Specific course of skill prerequisites will vary by instructor.
For more information, contact Connie Sadaka
at 973-353-1080 x 3294 |
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Research Opportunities: Gyorgy Buzsaki
The major thrust of our laboratory is to reveal the contribution of neural network activity in the hippocampal formation to the cognitive functions supported by this substrate. Two major lines of research activities are devoted to these issues.
First, the emergence of population activity is examined in the awake freely moving rodent using multisite electrodes within and between anatomically interconnected structures. Exploration of these more global/network patterns of activity are facilitated by parallel intracellular experiments in the anesthetized animal.
Second, the network connectivity of hippocampal neurons is explored by intracellular labeling of cells and reconstruction of their complete axonal arbor, followed by identification of their targets at both light- and electron microscopic levels.
The hope is that the convergence of the two approaches will allow us and the neuroscience community to understand when (i. e., under what behavioral conditions) and where (i. e., what region, what synapse) synaptic modifications take place and how the the hippocampus assists the neocortex in the construction and maintenance of long-term memory traces. In essence, we try to fill the existing and growing gap between the wealth of information available at the molecular/synaptic level on one hand, and on the cognitive level on the other hand.
An interconnected area of the above is epilepsy research. Here we are lead by the hypothesis that the hippocampus is the most epileptogenic site of the brain because it, more then other cortical networks, is naturally endowed with a maximum capacity to generate plasticity by way of strong population synchrony. On these lines, the transitions between naturally occurring patterns and epileptic events are investigated in whole animals. A final research area addresses the interaction between ischemic cell damage and the emergence of epileptic activity in the structurally reorganized hippocampus. We also have an intellectual interest in oscillations in general and the functions they may serve in the intact brain and in altered states, such as petit mal epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia and Parkinson disease.
More Information -
Webpage:
Gyorgy Buzsaki |
Research Overview -