Markus Lab

The Markus Lab at the University of Connecticut works with rat populations to study aging, memory encoding, neural network representation, and competition between brain systems.

We are interested in understanding how an experience gets "turned into" a memory. Our lab focuses on how networks of neurons process and represent information. Clinical finding in humans show that the hippocampus and related structures are crucial for encoding the "what, when, and where" of an experience and forming long-lasting memories. Similar results are seen in rats. We test rats on a variety of memory tasks together with an examination of the activity of the neurons in their hippocampus.

We have recently been examining social behavior in rats.  Including exploration in pairs, dominance hierarchy, and observational learning, when a "student rat" learns from another "teacher rat" the correct goal on a given trial.  Some of our findings have been presented as a AI generated podcast.

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This work is supported by the University of Connecticut Research Foundation; Claude Pepper - Research Development Core; the National Science Foundation (NSF); and the National Institute on Aging (NIA). We are very appreciative of this support!