C07
Dendritic computstions underlying formation of feature-selectivity in CA1 and their impairment in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease
How do neurons become selective to particular features from the myriad of their synaptic inputs, and how are the underlying mechanisms impaired in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease? We will study these questions in CA1 pyramidal neurons, which undergo rapid changes in tuning properties when animals ex- plore a novel environment. The feature-selectivity of CA1 neurons is not solely determined by the tuning of their inputs, but is actively shaped by dendritic events which play a key role in detecting coincident distal input from entorhinal cortex layer III and proximal input from CA3. We will use a combination of 2photon calcium imaging and newly developed data-analysis and modelling techniques to study neural mechanisms of feature selectivity in CA1 cells in healthy animals and a mouse model of Alzheimer’s.