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Behavioral Neuroscience Lab
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A lab exploring the mechanisms of memory and learning in the mouse brain.
AboutAbout the lab
Explaining memory and learning in the language of cells and circuits.
The Behavioral Neuroscience Lab (Matsuo Lab) studies the mechanisms of memory and learning, by which animals record experienced information in the brain and retrieve it when needed.
Mainly using genetically modified mice, the lab combines behavioral analysis, molecular and cell biology, optogenetics and chemogenetics, and in vivo brain activity imaging.
By "visualizing" and "manipulating" the neuronal populations, synapses, and circuits that carry memory information, the lab explores where in the brain and by what principles memories are represented and read out.
The ultimate goal is to explain the mechanisms of the cognitive functions that underlie animal behavior and consciousness in the language of synapses, cells, and circuits.
Key terms
- Memory trace
- A specific neural circuit, cell population, synapse, or molecule that changes at the moment of learning. Also called an engram
- Immediate early gene
- A group of genes whose expression is induced in a neural activity-dependent manner. c-fos is one of them
- In vivo brain activity imaging
- A technique for recording the activity of neurons as images inside the brain of a living animal
NewsLab news
Paper "Neural Basis of the Conditioned Stimulus in Associative Learning" published in PNAS
Paper by Professor Matsuo and colleagues published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the Unit…
A PhD student received the Best presentation award at the area meeting of Transformative Research Areas (A)
ResearchResearch themes
Memory and learning are essential for animals to make decisions and act in response to changes in their environment. This lab aims to explain where and how memory information is represented in the brain, and how it is read out, in the language of synapses, cells, and circuits.
*Illustrative imageIdentifying Memory Traces and Elucidating Their Mechanisms
The lab aims to identify memory traces, such as the cell populations and synapses that change at the moment of learning, and to clarify the phenomena and principles at work in them. It uses genetically modified mice that take advantage of c-fos, an immediate early gene whose expression is induced by neural activity.
*Illustrative imageGene Manipulation and Imaging Methods
The lab uses genetically modified mice and mice into which genes have been introduced with adeno-associated virus (AAV). Its analyses combine behavioral analysis, optogenetics and chemogenetics, in vivo brain activity imaging, and molecular and cell biology.
MembersFaculty
The Behavioral Neuroscience Lab consists of faculty members and PhD, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2025
- ProfessorNaoki Matsuo
- Assistant ProfessorKyogo Kobayashi
- Assistant ProfessorNaoki Yamamoto
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Mouse Brain (NIH BioArt )” Courtesy of NIAID Ryan Kissinger / Public domain (cropped)
- Identifying Memory Traces and Elucidating Their Mechanisms: “Mouse Brain (NIH BioArt )” Courtesy of NIAID Ryan Kissinger / Public domain (cropped)
- Gene Manipulation and Imaging Methods: “Genetic engineering logo” Ciencias Españolas KoS / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Evolutionary Genetics Lab): “Researcher beside Vials closed by cotton plugs and filled with Fruit fly larvae” Robert Cudmore from Marseille, France / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Molecular Genetics Lab): “Caenorhabditis elegans under a light microscope 02” Gannu03 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Cell Function Lab): “Cell cycle showing G0 G1 arrest” Lucia de Diego Mialdea / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Mathematical Biology Lab): “Bactritida-ammonoidea evolution morphology” Antonov / Public domain (cropped)
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