The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) for Training of Postdoctoral Fellows to Dr. Michael (Mike) J. Starrett Ambrose, Principal Investigator (PI), for his research project titled “Challenging Classical Theories in Spatial Cognition: Contrasting Translator and Comparator Models of Human Retrosplenial Function.”

This highly competitive grant, with a project period of two years, aims to challenge traditional models of retrosplenial cortex computations that underlie the flexible utilization of both viewer-centered and world-centered (map-like) representations in memory and spatial navigation. By advancing our understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying retrosplenial cortex contributions to learning, memory, and navigation, the research findings hold the potential to shed light on disease pathologies associated with damage to this specific brain region.

This grant not only supports groundbreaking research but also offers valuable training for postdoctoral fellows who are contributing to the field of neuroscience. Stay tuned for updates on this investigation in the coming years!

Over the weekend, members of our lab met up at the Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena for a session of afternoon ice skating, gracefully (or not-so-gracefully) gliding across the ice with laughter and camaraderie. After this invigorating event, we continued our afternoon by heading to Irvine Spectrum Center for dinner. To top off the night, some of us rode the Irvine Spectrum Center Giant Wheel for the first time – a staple in Irvine! It’s always a fun and memorable experience to spend time with the lab, creating bonds outside of our research endeavors.

Pictured (left to right): Olivia, Nikki, Taylor, Wendy, Liz, Alina, Ying, Nick, and Jingjing.

Chrastil Lab publishes a review paper in Neuron (2023), “Rethinking retrosplenial cortex: Perspectives and predictions”

Authors: Alexander, A.S.*, Place, R.*, Starrett, M.J.*, Chrastil, E.R.†, & Nitz, D.A.†
* denotes equal authorship † indicates co-senior and co-corresponding authors

See link to paper under publications tab!

Chrastil Lab publishes a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (2022), “Linking global top-down views to first-person views in the brain”

Authors: Xing, J., Chrastil, E.R., Nitz, D.A., Krichmar, J.L.

*See link to paper under publications tab!

Neuroscience 2022, hosted by SfN, took place across 5 days in San Diego, CA, and many of our lab members presented their work. Shoutout to Nikki for taking photos of our poster presenters and a huge congrats to the presenters!

Talks:

• Lily Cheng – Evidence for a distributed head direction and travel trajectory system in the human brain during active navigation
• Liz Chrastil – Dynamic brain network interactions during human navigational learning

Posters (click on the presenter’s name for their photo):

• Alina Tu – The relationship between hippocampal subfield volumes and individual differences in navigation
• Daniela Cossio – The relationship between spatial navigation ability during midlife and white matter structural integrity
• Erica Ward – Brain network dynamics for navigational learning and memory
• Mike Starrett-Ambrose – Domain generality and specificity across egocentric and allocentric distance ratings
• Nikhita Kaushik – The Southern California Youth Neuroscience Association (SCYNA) as a model for engaging high school students in neuroscience
• Theo Kapogianis – Graph metrics and non-spatial navigational learning
• Vaisakh Puthusseryppady – Changes in spatial exploration behavior in early aging

Liz presented her department-wide tenure talk titled “Spatial navigation as a window into human learning and memory” on November 8th, which neatly summarized the lab’s research questions, impact, current studies, and future directions. She talked about the lab’s complementary use of immersive virtual reality technology and neuroimaging techniques to study how humans acquire and use spatial knowledge. The talk included ongoing studies and recent findings led by various lab members and concluded with the ways that navigation lends insights to human learning and memory processes. Congrats on a great talk, Liz!

Chrastil Lab publishes a paper in Machine Learning with Applications (2022), “Who believes they are good navigators? A machine learning pipeline highlights the impact of gender, commuting time, and education”

Authors: Cheng, Y., He, C., Hegarty, M., Chrastil, E.R.

*See link to paper under publications tab!

The CNLM hosted its annual Halloween Brainfest with a lab costume contest on Friday afternoon. Labs from multiple departments came together for catered tacos, a zombie-brain cake, and a friendly costume competition. The Chrastil lab dressed up as Spiderman to recreate the popular meme, spreading laughs and winning hearts.

Pictured (left to right): Nikki, Sarvia, Vaisakh, Theo, Liz, Alina, and Daniela.

The lab decorated the community center to celebrate Halloween over the weekend. We started out the afternoon with some food, snacks, and Halloween candy and ended it with pumpkin carving. Thank you, Daniela, for organizing this event!

Top (left to right): Sarvia, Erica, Theo, Vaisakh, Liz, Alina, and Mike. Bottom (left to right): Rosana, Daniela, and Nikki. Not pictured: Olivia.

Chrastil Lab publishes a paper in Frontiers in Virtual Reality (2022), “A new psychometric task measuring spatial perspective taking in ambulatory virtual reality”

The task, data, and analysis scripts are publicly available on GitHub. Check out our Lab Resources tab for more information.