Charles Darwin used the term “dead reckoning” to describe the mysterious ability of most species to seamlessly navigate back home, even in the absence of external guiding cues. Finding our way home is indeed something most of us take for granted, but this facility is dramatically impaired in many people with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy. Our research is motivated by a desire to understand how healthy neurons in the brain compute the way home and how these same neuronal computations fail in neurological and psychiatric disorders, with the ultimate goal of therapeutically repairing these neurons and computations. Read on for our papers, and please get in touch with Omar if you have questions about our research, want to support our work, or if you’re interested in joining or collaborating with the lab.
New Manuscripts from the Lab:
A definitive transcriptomic atlas of retrosplenial neurons across species
Brooks I, Jedrasiak-Cape I, Rybicki-Kler C, Ekins TG, Ahmed OJ (2024). Unique Transcriptomic Cell Types of the Granular Retrosplenial Cortex are Preserved Across Mice and Rats Despite Dramatic Changes in Key Marker Genes
The Defining Cell Type of the Granular Retrosplenial Cortex is Radically Different
Jedrasiak-Cape I, Rybicki-Kler C, Brooks I, Ghosh M, Brennan EWK, Kailasa S, Ekins TG, Rupp A, Ahmed OJ (2024). Cell-type-specific cholinergic control of granular retrosplenial cortex with implications for angular velocity coding across brain states.
Psychedelics Decrease Excitability & Working Memory in Prefrontal Cortex
Ekins TG, Brooks I, Kailasa S, Rybicki-Kler C, Jedrasiak-Cape I, Donoho E, Mashour GA, Rech J, Ahmed OJ (2023). Cellular rules underlying psychedelic control of prefrontal pyramidal neurons.
Left-Right Brain Communicate Better When Running Faster or in REM Sleep
Ghosh M, Yang FC, Rice SP, Hetrick V, Lorenzo A, Siu D, Brennan EW, John TT, Ahrens AM, Ahmed OJ (2022). Running speed and REM sleep control two distinct modes of rapid interhemispheric communication. Cell Reports 40:111028
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Parallel Processing in Superficial Retrosplenial Ctx
Brennan EW*, Jedrasiak-Cape I*, Kailasa S, Rice SP, Sudhakar SK, Ahmed OJ (2021). Thalamus and claustrum control parallel layer 1 circuits in retrosplenial cortex. eLife, 10:e62207
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Human Inhibitory Neurons Dynamically Control Seizures
Ahmed OJ, John TT, Sudhakar SK, Brennan EKW, Lorenzo Gonzalez A, et al. (2020). Two modes of inhibitory neuronal shutdown distinctly amplify seizures in humans. Submitted
Speed Distinctly Controls the Amplitude vs Shape of Theta
Ghosh M*, Shanahan BE*, Furtak SC, Mashour GA, Burwell RD, Ahmed OJ (2020). Instantaneous amplitude and shape of postrhinal theta oscillations differentially encode running speed. Behavioral Neuroscience 134:6 516–528
