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Retrosplenial Circuits Underlying Landmark Stability

Award Number: F30EY029589
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2019
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2025

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Retrosplenial Circuits Underlying Landmark Stability - PROJECT SUMMARY Vision is key to spatial navigation, because visual landmarks guide us through our everyday lives. However, some landmarks become unreliable because they shift their location over time. Recent research suggests an area of the brain known as the retrosplenial cortex processes landmarks and evaluates their stability1. The retrosplenial cortex lies at a nexus between the hippocampal formation—a structure critical for navigation, learning, and memory—and the visual cortex. The anatomical and functional connections have suggested retrosplenial cortex is a site of visuospatial processing for some time2. And in fact, patients with damage to RSC have difficulty utilizing landmarks to navigate through familiar environments, learning new routes, and performing visual memory tasks3. But only recently have “place” cells been discovered in mouse retrosplenial cortex, which encode the animal’s position in the world4. Our preliminary data suggest place cells can be seen while an animal runs through a visual, virtual-reality track. We hypothesized that these place representations may be strongly influenced by the movement of local landmarks, thus encoding both space and landmark stability. This proposal lays out a strategy for testing this hypothesis using in vivo two-photon calcium imaging and immersive virtual reality environments. First the proposal aims to fully characterize the visual properties of retrosplenial “place” cells. Second, the proposal aims to test whether areas of high landmark instability are encoded by fewer place fields. Finally, the proposal focuses on the moment a landmark begins moving to see if the neural circuits show signs of becoming plastic. Scientists have long been interested in how the brain enables spatial navigation. Not only is spatial navigation essential to daily life, but the neural circuits involved overlap significantly with brain regions that process learning and memory. If successful, this study will generate insight into the neural circuits of navigation and the essential contribution of visual landmark processing. These results will add basic knowledge into how these circuits function in health and why they are vulnerable to diseases such as neurodegeneration and stroke. The project will also inform the scientific and medical communities on the proper design of immersive sensory interfaces for behavioral assessment in animals and potentially rehabilitative therapies in humans.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $43,634 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE	160 ALDRICH HALL	IRVINE	CA	92697	ORANGE	USA	Vision Research	000	6	5/3/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$43,634
														Subtotal = $43,634

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $52,694 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE	160 ALDRICH HALL	IRVINE	CA	92697	ORANGE	USA	Vision Research	000	5	4/19/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$52,694
														Subtotal = $52,694

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $51,752 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE	141 INNOVATION DR STE 250	IRVINE	CA	92617	ORANGE	USA	Vision Research	002	4	5/27/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$1
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE	141 INNOVATION DR STE 250	IRVINE	CA	92617	ORANGE	USA	Vision Research	001	4	5/9/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$717
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE	141 INNOVATION DR STE 250	IRVINE	CA	92617	ORANGE	USA	Vision Research	000	4	3/24/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$51,036
														Subtotal = $51,752

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $42,227 )
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE	141 INNOVATION DR STE 250	IRVINE	CA	92617	ORANGE	USA	Vision Research	000	3	3/2/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$42,227
														Subtotal = $42,227

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $41,021 )
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE	141 INNOVATION DR STE 250	IRVINE	CA	92617	ORANGE	USA	Vision Research	000	2	3/25/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$41,021
														Subtotal = $41,021

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $39,866 )
2019	2019	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE	141 INNOVATION DR STE 250	IRVINE	CA	92617	ORANGE	USA	Vision Research	000	1	3/28/2019	NEW	$39,866
2019	2019	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE	141 INNOVATION DR STE 250	IRVINE	CA	92617	ORANGE	USA	Vision Research	001	1	3/28/2019	NEW	$0
														Subtotal = $39,866

Grand Total All Awards = $271,194

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Retrosplenial Circuits Underlying Landmark Stability

Award Number: F30EY029589

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2019

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2025

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