Horacio Rotstein
New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ·Neuroscience
Individual brain cells fire in irregular patterns, yet groups of them can produce steady rhythms. One of the best studied is the theta rhythm, a 4–10 Hz oscillation recorded during movement and REM sleep and thought to support navigation, episodic memory and learning.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Mathematics & Statistics
Biophysics
- Topics
computational neuroscience
theta oscillations
hippocampus
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2027
What they work on
- Build biophysical computational models of the hippocampal CA1 network that include neurons' intrinsic subthreshold oscillatory properties and medial septum input, and test whether they reproduce theta-frequency local field potential oscillations.
- Test the hypothesis that theta rhythms arise from resonant mechanisms in individual neurons amplified by circuit interactions, using dynamical systems analysis of the network models.
- Develop a theoretical framework linking single-neuron oscillatory properties to network oscillations, constrained by collaborators' voltage imaging and optogenetic data from pyramidal cells and parvalbumin- and somatostatin-positive interneurons in behaving animals.
More about the research
How such network rhythms emerge from the electrical properties of single neurons remains largely unknown. This collaborative project attacks that question in the hippocampus, a brain region central to memory, combining in vivo experiments at Boston University with computational modeling by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) team.
Why it matters
Hippocampal theta rhythms are tied to navigation, learning and memory. Explaining mechanistically how these network oscillations arise from the properties of individual neurons and circuit interactions adds basic understanding of how brain networks coordinate activity, with implications for how learning, memory and other cognitive functions are supported.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Theodore Dumas
George Mason University, VA·Neuroscience
Test whether GluN2B-type C-terminal domain signaling, separated from ion-channel function using chimeric GluN2 subunits in transgenic mice, regulates hippocampal theta and slow gamma oscillations and cross-frequency coupling.
Youngmin Park
University of Florida, FL·Mathematics & Statistics
Extend phase-amplitude-based reduced order modeling so that it remains valid for strongly coupled neural oscillators, removing the weak-coupling assumption that limits current coupled oscillator theory.
Matthew J.M. Rowan
Emory University, GA·Neuroscience
Develop enhancer-AAVs, viruses carrying cell-type-selective DNA switches, that label dentate gyrus granule cells, and convert the best candidates into optogenetic and chemogenetic variants for controlling these neurons.
The school
New Jersey Institute of Technology: 12 labs on PI Pages, $172M a year on research, 74 research doctorates a year.
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