NSB Seminar Series: Matthijs van der Meer

Matthijs van der Meer from Dartmouth College will present the NSB seminar titled "Replay in the rodent hippocampus: off the clock but on the job"

Abstract: Despite many compelling experimental and theoretical results, we still don’t know the internal logic of what experiences are prioritized for replay in the hippocampus and the brain more generally. After a brief critical review where I evaluate the leading theories against the data, I will focus on one particular puzzle: why, in some tasks, do rats replay the trajectory they are about to choose (i.e. towards their preferred goal), but in other tasks, replay the non-chosen trajectory? Through a combination of neural network simulations and analysis of experimental data, we suggest that one function of such "paradoxical" replay is to prevent interference between competing memory traces.

Bio: Matthijs (Matt) van der Meer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, where he leads a research program focused on the neural basis of learning, memory, and decision-making. His work integrates systems, behavioral, and computational neuroscience approaches to study how ensembles of neurons in the hippocampus and ventral striatum represent spatial and motivational information, with a particular emphasis on hippocampal replay, reinforcement learning, and neural oscillations. Using techniques such as large-scale electrophysiology, optogenetics, and computational modeling in behaving rodents, his lab investigates how internal brain dynamics contribute to planning and value-based behavior. Before joining Dartmouth, he held faculty and Canada Research Chair positions at the University of Waterloo, and he completed his Ph.D. in Neuroinformatics at the University of Edinburgh and post-doctoral training in the lab of A. David Redish at the University of Minnesota.