Denise Cai, PhD

Memory stability and flexibility across a lifetime

Aging is inevitable, but cognitive deficits may not have to be. By tracking the neural activity of hundreds of neurons in freely behaving mice as they form multiple spatial maps during young adulthood and middle age, Dr. Cai’s McKnight Innovator award will unveil how the brain stably stores and flexibly integrates memories across a lifetime. This work will help identify biomarkers and behavioral markers that can predict age-related cognitive deficits and provide early intervention to prevent or slow age-related cognitive decline. Dr. Cai’s lab combines cellular, circuit, and behavioral techniques to study how memories are stably stored and flexibly updated across time and experience. By studying memory-linking, or how events are connected when they occur closely in the time, she hopes to understand memory disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and memory declines in aging.