Shirly Someck

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience

Finding a necessary and sufficient neuronal pattern which induces memory-like behavior

Project description

Out of all our remarkable cognitive abilities, the ability to store and retrieve memories in short time spans stands in the very heart of our being. Yet despite years of research and much progress, mechanistic understanding of the neuronal basis of short-term memory (STM) at the single neuron and network levels remains largely unknown.

Using dense extracellular recordings and optogenetics, I plan to imitate neuronal patterns that take place spontaneously during the delay phase of an STM task, and induce memory-guided behavior. This will be done in mice performing a novel STM task designed specifically for this study, which is as immune as possible from non-mnemonic strategies. My approach suggests that instead of deriving the neuronal correlates of memory from an external stimulus ("outside-in"), it is possible to induce memory from its rudimentary neuronal pattern ("inside-out"). By manipulating the neuronal infrastructure of an STM trace, I will derive a causal connection between STM and the neuronal patterns which support memory-guided behavior. I will then perform small manipulations of the induced patterns, at higher spatiotemporal resolutions. These manipulations will reveal the maximal alterations that the neural code can tolerate, and the minimal network which can induce memory-guided behavior.

This work will leverage a novel behavioral task, high-density electrophysiological recordings, and fine optogenetic manipulations to gain scientific insight into the cortical mechanisms underlying STM. Understanding the limits and flexibility of the code will pave the path for developing brain-machine interfaces, and enhance or repair impaired memory functions.

About me

Following her BSc in Physics and Philosophy from Tel Aviv University, Shirly started to work at Eran Stark’s lab as a research assistant, and in parallel took multiple courses in biology, psychology, and neuroscience. Dr. Stark’s methodology of in-vivo neuronal recording in rodents led her to take special interest in understanding the mechanism of neural circuits underlying memory. In 2018 Shirly started the direct PhD program in the Sagol School of Neuroscience. Since, she has developed electrophysiological and electro-optic tools, and has performed many surgical implantations of these probes in the mouse brain. Following that, Shirly performed extracellular recording and optogenetic stimulations in freely-moving mice, and helped develop the pipeline for data analysis in the lab.

During her time as a researcher, Shirly came to the understanding that there are unique challenges faced by women during their PhD. This led her to co-found “Women who Brain”, a professional and social platform for women during their studies in the field of Neuroscience from all disciplines on campus.