Date: Wednesday, April 13th, 9–11am 

Location: McGovern Seminar room, 46-3189; and https://mit.zoom.us/j/92782936157

Presented by: David Theurel 

Committee: Matthew Wilson, Mehran Kardar, Samuel J. Gershman, Jeff Gore, Washington Taylor

Abstract: I will present a model of the computations taking place in the deliberative decision-making system of rodents, during wakefulness and sleep, with focus on the role of hippocampus (HPC) — an important learning and memory center. In this model, another brain area (the medial prefrontal cortex) performs high-level planning, and then tasks the HPC with fleshing out the details of the plan, as needed. The model describes the planning task of HPC as an optimal control problem, which allows us to draw insights from the powerful mathematics of optimal control theory, and closely-associated Hamiltonian mechanics. The model offers a paradigm capable of accommodating a wide range of observed experimental phenomena, and makes novel testable predictions.