The general focus of the experimental part of the Department of Neurophysiology of Memory and Computational Neuroscience are brain foundations of cognitive processes.
The most common models of cognitive functions are behavioral tests of spatial memory
and navigation in rodents. General applicability of their results is tested in analogous tasks in humans.
These models can be used to study pharmacological modulation of cognitive functions, namely in examining animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders
(Behavioral Pharmacology and Animal Models),
and to further develop the relationship between the brain and the cognition (Cognitive Neuroscience).
More detailed information about neural activity underlying cognitive processing
in various brain areas is obtained using electrophysiological unit recordings from behaving animals (Electrophysiology).
This approach has unsurpassed temporal resolution since it allows observing neural activity in real time,
but the number of simultaneously recorded neurons and brain areas is technically limited.
On the other hand, imaging neural activity by expression of immediate-early genes (IEGs)
is able to map activity of multitudes of neurons in many brain areas
complementing the electrophysiology.
An improved technique capable of imaging neural activity during two distinct behavioral episodes
should extend the methodological portfolio of the laboratory in close future (Molecular Imaging).
