CiNet Monthly Seminar
May 22, 2025
16:00-17:00 (JST)
at the Conference Room in the CiNet bldg.
Talk title: Reactivation, transformation, and impairment of memory traces in the human brain
Nikolai Axmacher
Professor
Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience
Faculty of Psychology
Ruhr University Bochum, France
Abstract:
Experiences are stored in the brain via memory traces, or engrams. Network-level signatures of these traces – “engram patterns” – can be extracted from patterns of EEG oscillations and fMRI BOLD activity. In the first part of my talk, I will show how the reactivation of engram patterns supports diverse functions from short-term memory maintenance to long-term memory retrieval and consolidation. However, it is commonly assumed that memory is not a veridical reproduction of past experiences but involves substantial transformations. In the second part, I will describe how memory traces are transformed into representational formats that are conducive for the specific task demands, and that can be quantitatively assessed via deep neural networks. In the final section, I will describe how distortions and impairments of spatial memory and navigation provide a cognitive marker of early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.