Howard Eichenbaum, Ph.D / Lab Chief
hbe(at)bu.edu

Howard Eichenbaum

The hippocampus plays a critical role in memory formation, but our understanding of just what the hippocampus does and how it performs its functions are still issues of considerable controversy. To enhance our knowledge about hippocampal function, we are pursuing a combination of neuropsychological studies of the nature of memory loss in animals with damage to the hippocampus and related cortical areas, and we are pursuing electrophysiological recording studies that seek to determine how information is represented by the hippocampus and associated cortical areas.

Howard Eichenbaum’s NeuroTree

Post Doctoral Associates

David Sullivan, Ph.D. – Post Doctoral Associate
davidsul(at)bu.edu

David Sullivan

I received my Ph.D. in 2013 from Rutgers University (Newark), where I worked in Dr. Gyorgy Buzsaki’s lab, studying how various brain rhythms coordinate neurons in the hippocampus and neocortex. Subsequently, I joined Howard Eichenbaum’s lab as a postdoctoral researcher, where I have used a new technical approach — using calcium imaging to record the activity of hundreds of hippocampal neurons simultaneously. This approach affords a clearer big picture of how neurons in the hippocampus support myriad cognitive and behavioral functions, driving us closer to a general understanding of the role of the hippocampus in the mammalian brain. My work encompasses both the experimental and analytical sides of systems neuroscience; in addition to performing experiments in freely moving mice, I have developed a new software package that analyzes calcium imaging movies and extracts neuronal activity in a fast and accurate manner.

Graduate Students

Dan Sheehan, M.A. – Graduate Student
dsheehan(at)bu.edu

Dan Sheehan

I tend to focus my efforts on all things awesome.  As my graduate career is picking up momentum, awesome things include the ventral hippocampus.

Nat Kinsky – Graduate Student
kinsky(at)bu.edu

Nathaniel Kinsky

I am interested in the interplay between cortical areas and the hippocampus during the processes of consolidation/reconsolidation, when short-term memory representations transform/integrate into long-term representations.  Through the use of electrophysiological and imaging techniques, I hope to investigate the role that cortical areas, primarily the medial prefrontal cortex, play in this transformation/integration.

John Bladon – Graduate Student jhbladon(at)bu.edu

John Bladon

My background is in patch-clamp electrophysiology, and I have a MA in Anatomy and Neurobiology. I am interested in many things memory, but I focus specifically on the differences between spatial and non-spatial memories. To do this, I use in-vivo electrophysiology and optogenetics to examine the interactions between the hippocampus and cortical regions as the rat plays a memory game. In my free time I snowboard, rock climb, brew beer, and I play tennis and soccer.

Will Mau – Graduate Student wmau(at)bu.edu

Will Mau

During my undergraduate years, I worked in a lab that utilizes extracellular recordings and behavior in rodents to study learning and memory. Since then, I have been addicted to behavioral neuroscience. My current research will use calcium imaging to study the basis for the formation of hippocampal “time cells” and how the responses of these cells evolve over learning. From these studies, I hope to gain a better understanding of the role of the hippocampal formation in episodic memory encoding and retrieval. My hobbies outside of the lab include dabbling in various physical activities such as rock climbing, Ultimate Frisbee, and extreme tee drinking.

Catherine Mikkelsen – Graduate Student
cmikkels(at)bu.edu

Catherine Mikkelsen

I graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2012 with degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Psychology. Since graduating, I have combined these skill sets working for Dr. Eichenbaum helping to build an automated maze and studying prefrontal-hippocampal interactions in rats. I hope to expand on the understanding of this circuit in her graduate work. When not in lab, I can be found riding and caring for her horse Benjamin.

Sam Levy – Graduate Student samjl(at)bu.edu Sam Levy Graduated from Cornell University in 2013 with a BA in Psychology with honors. While at Cornell, I studied learning and memory in rodents, designing a behavioral model of interference. Since graduating I worked in the Hasselmo lab at BU, exploring other paths in memory using novel behaviors, electrophysiology, and DREADDs. In the GPN I planning to dive headlong into the interaction of neural circuits and active behavior by designing and animal model of memory interference, understanding its underlying processes from animal down to cell, and using this principle as a template to understand a variety of cognitive processes. Outside of the lab I like to play guitar, climb rocks.