Marielena Sosa

The Sosa lab seeks to understand learning and memory at the level of single neurons, neural circuits, and systems. We use spatial navigation in rodents as a model system to study how information is stored in memory and recalled for decision-making. We are particularly interested in how memory processes flexibly adapt in response to cognitive goals, emotional states, and physiological demands on the brain and body, including the profound demand of pregnancy and the postpartum period. Our research spans in vivo optical imaging, electrophysiology, circuit manipulations, complex rodent behaviors, and computational analysis.

Recent references of interest

Sosa M, Plitt MH, Giocomo LM. (2025) A flexible hippocampal population code for experience relative to reward. Nature Neuroscience 28(7):1497-1509. (^co-corresponding)

Sosa M, Giocomo L. (2021) Navigating for reward. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 22:472-487. 

Rueckemann JW, Sosa M, Giocomo LM, Buffalo EA. (2021) The grid code for ordered experience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience22:637-649. (*equal contribution)

Sosa M, Joo HR, Frank LM. (2020) Dorsal and Ventral Hippocampal Sharp-Wave Ripples Activate Distinct Nucleus Accumbens Networks. Neuron 105:725-741.