Our goal is to elucidate the neuronal and network mechanisms underlying cognitive functions such as episodic memory and spatial recognition

Shigeyoshi Fujisawa

Shigeyoshi Fujisawa, Ph.D.

Team Director, Systems Neurophysiology
shigeyoshi.fujisawa@riken.jp

Research Overview

Our main research goal is to elucidate the mechanisms of cognitive functions such as episodic memory and spatiotemporal recognition at the neural circuit level. To achieve this goal, we conduct studies using large-scale extracellular recordings from the hippocampus and cortex of behaving animals, such as rats, using silicon probes to simultaneously observe the activity of numerous neurons. Furthermore, by analyzing these data and constructing mathematical models, we aim to uncover how neurons contribute to cognitive functions and perform local circuit computations.

Main Research Fields

Complex Systems

Related Research Fields

Biological Sciences / Neuroscience-general-related / Cognitive and brain science-related / Basic brain sciences-related

Keywords

Selected Publications

  1. Ouchi A & Fujisawa S
    “Predictive grid coding in the medial entorhinal cortex”
    Science, 385:776-784. (2024)
    10.1126/science.adg3788The webpage will open in a new tab.
  2. Glykos V & Fujisawa S
    “Memory-specific encoding activities of the ventral tegmental area dopamine and GABA neurons”
    Elife, 12:RP89743. (2024)
    10.7554/eLife.89743The webpage will open in a new tab.
  3. Kawahara D & Fujisawa S
    “Advantages of persistent cohomology in estimating animal location from grid cell population activity”
    Neural Computation, 36:385-411. (2024)
    10.1162/neco_a_01645The webpage will open in a new tab.
  4. Shimbo A, Izawa EI, & Fujisawa S
    “Scalable representation of time in the hippocampus”
    Science Advances, 7:eabd7013. (2021)
    10.1126/sciadv.abd7013The webpage will open in a new tab.
  5. Norimoto H, Makino K, Gao M, Shikano Y, Okamoto K, Ishikawa T, Sasaki T, Hioki H, Fujisawa S, & Ikegaya Y.:
    "Hippocampal ripples down-regulate synapses."
    Science, 359:524-1527. (2018)
    10.1126/science.aao0702The webpage will open in a new tab.
  6. Danjo T, Toyoizumi T, & Fujisawa S.:
    "Spatial representations of self and other in the hippocampus."
    Science, 359:213-218. (2018)
    10.1126/science.aao3898 The webpage will open in a new tab.
  7. Terada S, Sakurai Y, Nakahara H, & Fujisawa S..:
    "Temporal and rate coding for discrete event sequences in the hippocampus."
    Neuron, 94:1248–62 (2017)
    10.1016/j.neuron.2017.05.024The webpage will open in a new tab.

Lab Members

Principal investigator

Shigeyoshi Fujisawa
Team Director

Core members

Vasileios Glykos
Research Scientist
Teruko Danjo
Special Postdoctoral Researcher
Kentaro Tao
Special Postdoctoral Researcher
Akihiro Shimbo
Junior Research Associate
Saori Kashiwagi
Technical Staff I