NEURAL CIRCUITS OF
COGNITION
CarlenLab is hiring!
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
We are looking to hire a research assistant to contribute to our investigations on the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in cortical learning, and in reward-based learning in particular. The project has relevance to theories on the PFC as a meta-reinforcer and the credit assignment problem. The project includes 2-photon imaging in behaving mice, circuit tracing, optogenetics, slice electrophysiology, tissue analysis, and more. Candidates are asked to contact Marie Carlén (marie.carlen@ki.se) and to provide a CV outlining experience and/or education with relevance to the lab’s research + a cover letter describing the motivation to join our lab.
POSTDOC
We are looking to recruit a postdoc with expertise in large-scale in vivo electrophysiology or calcium imaging in behaving mice. We have initiated new projects aimed to describe and define the mouse PFC based on neuronal activities and network dynamics (in contrast to cytoarchitecture or regional specializations), and other projects characterizing PFC’s interactions with downstream structures such as the striatum. To learn more about these interesting projects, please contact Marie Carlén (marie.carlen@ki.se). Please include a CV outlining experience and expertise with relevance to our activities + a cover letter describing the motivation to join our lab.
POSTDOC
We are looking to recruit a postdoc with expertise in slice electrophysiology and/or voltage imaging. Our in vivo investigations have revealed several important and interesting research directions that require parallel in vitro studies. Join to study dendritic calcium spiking in cortical neurons, the emergence of gamma oscillations in the PFC, and cortico-striatal interactions, using in vitro electrophysiology and voltage imaging. Candidates are asked to contact Marie Carlén (marie.carlen@ki.se) for more information and to provide a CV outlining experience and expertise with relevance to the planned research + a cover letter describing the motivation to join our lab.
May 4 2021. Maps of the nervous system inspire experiments and theories in neuroscience. Spatial transcriptomics has opened up a new era in neuroanatomy, where the unsupervised and unbiased exploration of the molecular signatures of tissue organization will give rise to a new generation of brain maps. Here we review the technological and conceptual advances made possible by spatial transcriptomics in the context of advancing neuroanatomy and discuss how molecular neuroanatomy can redefine mapping of the nervous system. We propose that classification of brain regions on the basis of their gene expression profile can circumvent subjective neuroanatomical definitions and produce common reference frameworks that can incorporate cell types, connectivity, activity, and other modalities.
Spatial Transcriptomics: Molecular Maps of the Mammalian Brain
Cantin Ortiz, Marie Carlén and Konstantinos Meletis
Annual Review of Neuroscience. 2021 Apr 29. doi: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-100520-082639. Online ahead of print. PMID:33914592
April 23 2021
THE MOUSE PREFRONTAL CORTEX: UNITY IN DIVERSITY
In this Perspective in Neuron, Pierre Le Merre, Sofie Ährlund-Richter and Marie Carlén provide a new comprehensive view of structural and functional distinctions of the mouse prefrontal cortex (PFC) and emphasizes the relevance of studying the PFC as a whole to unravel the integrative cognitive functions of this brain region.
A research synthesis of 100 recent publications (2011-2020) utilizing in vivo perturbation of behavior is included, and the results question absolute localized functions in the PFC.
Analyzed large-scale connectivity data indicate that the PFC is a module, holding a few larger subdivisions defined by their whole-brain connectivity.
The Perspective also covers neuronal correlates to cognitive functions of the mouse PFC and cellular mechanisms underlying PFC feedback modulation of downstream regions.
LINK to free pdf (for 50 days).
