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• genetics, genomics and molecular biology
• cell and developmental biology/regenerative medicine
• neuroscience and mental health

• Medicine
• Anaesthetics
• General Practice

• Dementia
• Neurology
• Neuropsychiatry
• Psychiatry

We study cell and neural circuit mechanisms involved in short- and long-term memory, Our work on neural mechanisms for behavioural habituation has identified a simple circuit mechanism for the creation of inhibitory representations or negative images of stimuli that can lead to habituation across neural systems and species. More recently, we have found evidence that this process is also used to mask or suppress associative memories, making them quiescent until recalled by contextual or attentional disinhibition. We are interested in translating this for understanding features of human autism. Our studies of short- and long-term memory mechanisms, have revolved around the role of RNA binding proteins (such as fragile X mental retardation protein and Ataxin -2) with disordered protein domains in local synaptic translation required for long-term memory. Mutations in disordered domains also cause human neurodegenerative disease. Ref 1: Ramaswami, M. (2014). Network plasticity in adaptive filtering and behavioral habituation. Neuron 82: 1216-1229. Ref 2. Ramaswami, M., Taylor, J.P. and Parker, R. (2013). Altered "Ribostasis": RNA-protein granules in degenerative disorders. Cell 154(4):727-36

Project 1: The role of inhibitory representations in memory masking and their potential deficits in psychiatric disease (fMRI and clinical collaborators will be required).

Project 2. Identifying genes that control long-term memory in advanced age.

Project 3: Circuit and cell biological mechanisms used for suppressing innate and learned behaviour.

(the latter two will be in Drosophila melanogaster, the model of choice for dissecting behavioural circuits)