Dr. Bruce McNaughton


Phone: (403) 394-3909
e-mail: bruce.mcnaughton@uleth.ca
Office: EP 1242
Lab: EP 1213

Research Interests

Dr. McNaughton's research focuses on the molecular, cellular and brain system mechanisms of memory and memory disorders associated with aging and brain damage. His early career concentrated on the biophysics of 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.

Biography

The main focus of his research is the physiological and computational basis of cognition, with particular focus on memory and memory disorders, and the dynamic interactions among neuronal populations and synaptic plasticity mechanisms that underlie these phenomena. Bruce has made significant contributions to the understanding of central synaptic plasticity mechanisms, spatial information processing in the hippocampal formation and cortex, cortico-hippocampal interactions and memory consolidation, and the aging of the nervous system. His current activities focus on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying spatial orientation ('head-direction', 'place', and 'grid' cells in the hippocampal formation and associated networks), the reactivation of memory traces in the cortex during sleep following learning and the role of this process in memory consolidation, and the self organization of synaptic networks during early post-natal development of the temporal lobe memory system. Throughout his career he has been involved in the development and application of new conceptual approaches and innovative technologies to his research questions.

Degrees

  • Ph.D. (Cum Laude) Psychology, Dalhousie University.
  • M.Sc. Biology, Carleton University.
  • B.Sc. (Honours, First Class) Biology, Carleton University.

Recent Publications

  1. Navratilova Z, Hoang LT, Schwindel CD, Tatsuno M and McNaughton BL (2012). Experience-dependent firing rate remapping generates directional selectivity in hippocampal place cells. Front. Neural Circuits 6:6. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2012.00006
  2. Navratilova, Z., Giocomo, L.M., Fellous, J.M., Hasselmo, M.E., and McNaughton, B.L. (2011). Phase precession and variable spatial scaling in a periodic attractor map model of medial entorhinal grid cells with realistic after-spike dynamics. Hippocampus. 2011 Apr 11. doi: 10.1002/hipo.20939.
  3. McNaughton, B.L. (2010) Cortical hierarchies, sleep, and the extraction of knowledge from memory. Artificial Intelligence, 174:205-214.
  4. Alme C.B., Buzzetti R.A., Marrone D.F., Leutgeb J.K., Chawla M.K., Schaner M.J., Bohanick J.D., Khoboko T., Leutgeb S., Moser E.I., Moser M.-B., McNaughton B.L. and Barnes C.A. (2010) Hippocampal Granule Cells Opt for Early Retirement. Hippocampus, 20:1109-1123.
  5. Colgin L.L., Leutgeb S., Jezek K., Leutgeb J.K., Moser E.I., McNaughton B.L., Moser, M-B (2010) Attractor-Map Versus Autoassociation Based Attractor Dynamics in the Hippocampal Network. J. Neurophysiology, The Journal of Neurophysiol, 104:35-50.
  6. Johnson L.A., Euston D.R., Tatsuno M., McNaughton, B.L., (2010) "Stored-trace reactivation in rat prefrontal cortex is correlated with down-to-up state fluctuation density", The Journal of Neuroscience, 30:2650-2661.
  7. Lansink, C.S., Golstein, P.M., Lankelma, J.V., McNaughton, B.L., and Pennartz, C.M.A. (2009) Hippocampus leads ventral striatum in replay of place-reward information. PLOS Biology, 7:1-11.
  8. Takehara-Nishiuchi, K. & McNaughton, B.L. (2008) Spontaneous changes in neocortical code for associative memory during consolidation. Science 322:960-963
  9. Cowen, S.L. and McNaughton, B.L. (2007) Selective delay activity in the medial prefrontal cortex of the rat: Contribution of sensorimotor information and contingency. Journal of Neurophysiology, 98:303-316.
  10. Marrone, D.F., Schaner, M.J., McNaughton, B.L., Worley, P.F., and Barnes, C.A. (2008) Immediate-early gene expression at rest recapitulates recent experience. The Journal of Neuroscience, 28:1030-1033.
  11. McNaughton, B.L., Battaglia, F.P., Jensen, O., Moser, E.I., and Moser, M-B. (2006) Path-integration and the neural basis of the 'cognitive map'. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7:663:678.
  12. Sargolini, F., Fyhn, M., Hafting, T., McNaughton, B.L., Witter, M.P., Moser, M-B. and Moser, E.I. (2006) Conjunctive representation of position, direction and velocity in entorhinal cortex. Science, 312:758-762.