Aaron Wilber
Contact Information
Interest
The Wilbur Lab has two areas of focus: 1) Understanding the brain dynamics that allow us to derive a sense of location from a body-centered view of the world and how these brain systems participate in learning and memory. A critical role of this brain network is to update our internal map of the environment when there is a conflict with the external environment (something we experience when getting reoriented after being lost). 2) This work exploring normal mechanisms informs parallel research on how these neural networks are altered by mental and memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. These two areas of focus are designed to advance the lab's progress toward a long-term goal to use maternal separation as a model to assess the contribution of neonatal stress to the development of mental and age-related cognitive disorders.
Current Research
To accomplish their goals the lab uses custom 3D printed recording arrays to monitor many single cells in multiple brain regions, while simultaneously recording population related neural activity (local field potentials). They also use circuit specific manipulations, semi-automated density based measures of disease markers and brain connectivity, and mouse models of disease (e.g., Alzheimer’s). These approaches are applied in rodents that are navigating freely moving or in virtual environments. Specifically, the lab is exploring how we derive a sense of location from a body-centered view of the world. How are brain circuits involved in spatial learning and memory altered by neonatal perturbations, mental and neurological disorders? Can we mimic impairments observed in disease and disorder by circuit specific manipulations to the underlying neural network?