kloostermanlab

Big rewards, better memory

In a new publication out in Current Biology, we describe the impact of reward size on memory formation and how memories coupled to a large reward are formed and stabilized faster. Our ability to remember certain experiences in our lives depends in part on how we perceive their value. Generally, if an experience is perceived to haveContinue reading “Big rewards, better memory”

Neuropixels 2.0

Proud that we have been able to contribute to Neuropixels 2.0, a new generation of miniature recording probes that can track the neurons inside the brain over weeks — and even months. The new probes build on the success of the original Neuropixels probes released in 2017 and currently used in more than 400 labs.Continue reading “Neuropixels 2.0”

Internship during COVID-19

Hugo Bohy from the Faculté Polytechnique of the University of Mons recently joined our lab as an intern. In the March NERF newsletter, he talks about what it’s like doing an internship externally during the ongoing pandemic. “Even though it is not the same working from home, being part of NERF has been a really excitingContinue reading “Internship during COVID-19”

Congrats to Dr. Wouters

Congrats to Dr. Jasper Wouters, joint PhD in the Kloosterman lab and the Bertrand lab at ESAT, for successfully defending his PhD on ‘Design and Validation of Low-complexity Methods for Resolving Spike Overlap in Neuronal Spike Sorting’.

Science outreach with Lies Deceuninck

To have a conversation and interact in a meaningful way, you have to be constantly aware of what has already been said. You have to remember the recent past. But how does that work? How does our brain create a memory? Lies Deceuninck, PhD student in our lab, explains it in this 3-minute video forContinue reading “Science outreach with Lies Deceuninck”

What makes memories stronger?

Our new paper on hippocampal replay is out. Congrats to Frédéric Michon and the rest of the team! A team of scientists led by Fabian Kloosterman found that highly demanding and rewarding experiences result in stronger memories. By studying navigation in rats, the researchers traced back the mechanism behind this selective memory enhancement to so-called replay processes inContinue reading “What makes memories stronger?”

Where do rats think they are?

The rat in a maze may be one of the most classic research motifs in brain science, but together with international collaborators we describe a new innovation in Cell Reports that shows just how far such experiments are still pushing the cutting edge of technology and neuroscience. In recent years, scientists have shown that by recording theContinue reading “Where do rats think they are?”