The Retrosplenial Cortical Role in Navigation and Memory, by David Smith

Summary The Hippocampus and the Neural Basis of Context-Dependent Memory
The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is an important, but understudied, component of the brain’s memory and navigation systems. Like the more well-studied hippocampus, the RSC is involved in spatial cognition, episodic memory, and contextual memory. However, there is no consensus on the nature of the functional contributions of the RSC or whether they differ from the hippocampus. In this talk, I will describe our recent work using rodent neurophysiology to study the role of the RSC in spatial and contextual memory. I will also discuss the emerging theories of RSC function.

Short Biography
David SMITH completed his PhD studies at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL in 2001 with Michael Gabriel, where he examined the neural circuits involved in instrumental discrimination learning. He was a postdoctoral researcher with Sheri Mizumori at the University of Washington, Seattle WA from 2001-2006. His work examined the role of the hippocampus in encoding contextual information. He has been a faculty member at Cornell Uniiversity in Ithaca, NY since 2006 where he is currently a professor of Psychology and Neuroscience. His research program is centered on the neurophysiological bases of memory, using a variety of spatial and olfactory memory tasks in rodents. His laboratory has several main areas of interest, including contextual memory, brain mechanisms for coping with interference and the roles of the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and retrosplenial cortex in memory and navigation. more information
Team’s web site