Research

RESEARCH IN THE MCNAUGHTON LAB

ABOUT

Dr. McNaughton’s research focuses on mechanisms of learning and memory, largely centered around hippocampus functional contributions to engram formation and alteration. This includes examination of impaired memory and memory disorders associated with aging and/or systemic damage.

Dr. McNaughton began his career as a biophysicist performing long-term synaptic potentiation and the role of this process in associative information storage. This work was highlighted by the first demonstration that “Hebbian” principles of association, which form the basis of all neural network learning algorithms, are embodied in the actual dynamics of experience dependent synaptic plasticity. In the last 15 years, Dr. McNaughton has been at the forefront of development of methods to study the large-scale interactions of neurons in the intact brain during the encoding, storage, recall and consolidation of memory. Methods developed in his laboratory now make it possible to record from several hundred cortical neurons during learning experiments in animals, providing an unprecedented window on how neurons cooperate during cognitive processing. These methods are also being directed towards the development of neuroprosthetic systems that will use direct brain recording to control muscle activity in patients with spinal injury. At the other end of the scientific spectrum, Dr. McNaughton is a key member of an interdisciplinary team involved in the development of immediate-early gene activation markers of neural activity in the brain. This method permits visualization of the recent history of activity in the brain at cellular resolution, thus allowing identification of not only which areas of the brain are activated during cognitive processing, but which specific neurons. This method will provide an important complement to non-invasive, but lower resolution, functional neuroimaging studies using magnetic resonance.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR UCI UNDERGRADUATES

Our lab has benefited greatly from the work of undergraduate researchers and we are always open to considering new opportunities for students. If you are interested, please contact Dr. McNaughton to discuss your interests, background, career plans, and detailed rationale behind your desire to work in an active research environment.