Zhang Group

Both hippocampus and entorhinal cortex are key components of the brain’s map of the external environment. The hippocampal-entorhinal microcircuitry contains a number of specialized cell types including place cells in the hippocampus and gird cells, border cells, head-direction cells and conjunctive grid-head-direction or border-head-direction cells in the entorhinal cortex. Our group harnesses, in combination with in vivo extracellular recording, optogenetic and pharmacrogenetic toolboxes with spatial, sequential and temporal specificity to decode the functional interactions between these two maps and interdependence between the different cell types within these cortical space-memory circuits.