Learning and memory arise from the activity of anatomically specialized brain structures, each processing specific cognitive features. However, the brain is highly networked and cognition emerges from dynamic interactions between structures rather than from isolated activity. Recent advances in brain imaging and computational modelling now enable the construction of functional connectivity maps that capture network activity during cognitive processes, including memory. However, our network-level understanding of memory is still limited. While mechanisms of fear memories are relatively well explored, less is known about appetitive spatial memories and their subsequent extinction learning (EL), a type of learning that is essential for goal‑directed navigation in everyday life. Moreover, it is unclear how these networks are modulated by ageing and by differences in synaptic plasticity and sensory integrity determined by genetic background. With his research project, Josué Haubrich now wants to investigate these connections in more detail. Josué describes his project as follows:

Finding our way to a reward depends on memories that link places, goals and changing circumstances. It is unclear if age and concomitant individual differences in brain plasticity and sensory acuity affect this process. I propose to test young (2-3 months) and mature (6-7 months) adult mice from two mouse strains that display distinct profiles of brain plasticity and sensory acuity: C57BL/6J, which develop early progressive hearing loss (presbycusis), and CBA/CaOlaHsd, whose hearing remains intact throughout life. These mice will learn an “ABA” T-maze task in which they first learn to locate a low probability food reward, then experience its absence in a maze with altered contextual cues (extinction learning), and finally return to the original but now unrewarded context, to assess whether the initial memory is renewed and then updated. Memory performance and search strategies will be evaluated, and neuronal activation across 16 key brain regions will be quantified, by means of fluorescence in situ hybridization to detect time-dependent nuclear immediate early gene expression during renewal testing, to identify underlying brain patterns. This will reveal how ageing and sensory decline reorganize brain-wide functional networks that support flexible, goal-directed memory.

The SFB 1280 has set up a budget for its young scientists to realize their own research ideas. We use the “treasure chest” to finance convincing and independent study concepts of our early career researchers.