Research Profile
My research investigates sleep-dependent memory consolidation in non-mammalian animal models.
I use an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates diverse methods such as:
- Neurophysiology to examine brain dynamics during learning and sleep
- Slice electrophysiology to map large-scale brain dynamics
- Behavioral paradigms to study natural learning
- Molecular and genetic tools to perturb neural circuits in real time
- Computational approaches to analyze behavior and brain state network dynamics
Current Research Projects
Building from my previous results in reptiles (Shein-Idelson, Ondracek et. al 2016) my current research at the TUM aims to relate sleeping brain activity to awake behavior and vocal learning in songbirds.
Targeting the avian DVR during sleep, I discovered avian SWRs that were phenomenologically similar to the SWRs that we had recorded in the reptilian DVR: a large negative deflection accompanied by a high frequency oscillation.
In order to investigate the large-scale neural dynamics related to SWR activity, my lab has developed in vitro approaches to map SWR trajectories in brain slice recordings. Similar to mammalian SWRs recorded in hippocampal brain slices, avian SWRs occur spontaneously and can be recorded from thick brain slices. In order to identify sites of SWR initiation and map SWR propagation trajectories, I record spontaneous SWR activity from chicken brain slices using 60-channel perforated microelectrode arrays (pMEAs).
How do individual neurons contribute to and synchronize with SWRs? I plan to use whole-cell-patch clamp recordings in current clamp mode to observe how the depolarizations of patched neurons are timed with nearby SWRs. I expect to see concurrent depolarization of the neuron with the SWR. Then I will use voltage clamp recordings to identify the excitatory and inhibitory currents that occur during SWRs.
Contact me if you are interested in working on a Bachelor's or Master's project on this topic!!
Vocal learning in songbirds is one of the few innate learning models that can be used to study memory. As a juvenile bird learns to sing, it must undergo a complex memory task that involves the formation of auditory memories, sequences of motor output, and associative higher-order representations of learned vocalizations (Margoliash & Schmidt, 2010). The process of song learning is similar to speech learning in humans and consists of 1) auditory encoding of the song template during a sensory phase, and 2) the process of vocal imitation during the sensorimotor phase (Konishi, 1965, 2004). As soon as a juvenile bird is exposed to the song of another male bird (usually its father, the “tutor”), the young bird begins to imitate aspects of those songs in squeaky and noisy subsongs, which are often compared to the babbling of human babies (Aronov et al., 2008; Brainard & Doupe, 2000). Through a process of auditory feedback and motor learning, juvenile subsongs transition from acoustically simple songs to complex and stereotypical adult songs in a process known as crystallization.
How does sleep affect vocal learning? I use a combination of chronic electrophysiology combined with song recording to identify aspects of vocal learning that are affected by sleep.
Using DeepLabCut software and others, we investigate animal behavior and group dynamics.
