News & Announcements

Northwestern scientists have captured first-of-its-kind in vivo calcium imaging from the CA1 hippocampus (HPC) – the area of the brain essential for memory, spatial navigation and learning – in freely moving rats, offering a better visual representation of how HPC cells organize and change over time.

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found that calcium imaging in rats captures a high number of stable place cells – results consistent with firing patterns seen in electrophysiology and in contrast to mouse imaging studies that only capture a low percentage of place cells. The use of the rat model, which is physiologically more like humans than the mouse model, is also an opportunity to improve experimental processes and holds implications for broadening understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Four members of the Northwestern University faculty have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. Sara A. Solla, professor of Neuroscience, is among this year’s class of 261 artists, scholars, scientists and leaders in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. 

Northwestern investigators have discovered that dopamine signaling in the dorsomedial striatum promotes the development of compulsive behaviors, according to findings published in Current Biology.