Lorene Penazzi,

JAD profile

Affiliation(s): 

Douglas Hospital Research Center McGill University

Areas of Interest: 

Cellular, Aging and Cognition; Dementia; Neurodegeneration; Amyloid; Molecular Biology, calcium imaging, spatial memory

Biography & Research: 

Assemblies of principal hippocampal neurons are essential to encode and recall memories. Their activity is largely controlled by groups of inhibitory GABAergic interneurons interneurons. In contrast to other inhibitory cells, O-LM and VIP interneurons are particularly vulnerable to normal and pathological ageing, as Alzheimer's disease. My research aims to determine (i) the interplay between hub neuronal populations during goal-directed behaviors and spatial reference memory, (ii) to explore how brain neuronal networks respond to uncertainty of the environment and (iii) to identify variations happening in those processes during ageing. For this, I employed a combination of optogenetic and chemogenetic methods and innovative engineering brain imaging approaches such as head-mounted miniature microscope (UCLA miniscope) recording in behaving animals and biomolecular methods.