About his PhD project

Self-localization is essential to animal survival. In rodents, this ability relies on functional interactions between interconnected structures in the temporal lobe. Communication between these structures is facilitated by oscillations of neuronal activity notably in the gamma frequency range (30-120 Hz, 1) allowing the formation of transiently synchronized
neuronal assemblies (2). Recent work notably in the Dupret group in Oxford shows that, in the hippocampus, gamma oscillations can be separated into distinct narrow frequency bands (transient Spectral Components or TSCs) each allowing communication of specific neuronal assemblies between specific structures and supporting specific functions in spatial memory (3). Importantly, rapid transitions between neuronal assemblies and associated tSCs are experimentally observed but the cellular and network mechanisms are poorly understood. In this proposal we propose to address this question at the cellular level using dual intracellular/extracellular recordings in the hippocampus of awake mice navigating virtual environment and at the network level using neuropercolation models based on automata networks.