The lab of Carmen Varela, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of Phycology in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science recently received a competitive and prestigious Whitehall Foundation three year grant for $225,000. The grant will support research that aims to determine the cellular underpinnings of the influence of sleep on learning and memory.
"Our brain continues to process our everyday memories after initial formation. Resting states such as sleep may have an important role in the reorganization and stabilization of our memories," said Dr. Varela. "With this project, we will study the precise coordination of cellular activity during sleep may preserve recently formed memories and how they are processed to remain stable but flexible, so organisms can continue to learn and build upon them."
Dr. Varela's laboratory will use state-of-the-art neuroscience techniques to track cellular brain activity in rodents with high precision. These experiments aim to shed light on the cellular mechanisms of sleep-dependent memory consolidation and the role of sleep on adaptive behavior and learning.
