Multiscale Circuit Analysis
Memory and Action
European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen (ENI-G)
We are investigating the neural circuit mechanisms that allow our memories to be transformed into action.
We are using…
In vivo Ca2+ imaging
Behavioural tracking
…to answer…
What are the dynamics of memory and action coding in the hippocampus?
Optogenetics
How do hypothalamus and brainstem con-tribute to memory processing?
Circuit tracing
Engram labelling
Through which pathways are reward memories expressed into action?
News
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26-29 March 2025
Our lab is jointly coming to the German Neuroscience Society meeting in Göttingen! We will present several posters on Wednesday: T27-1A (Lam), T25-8A (Oliver), T11-8A (Melika). Come by and say Hi!
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21 March 2025
Te-Wei Su is joining Barnstedt Lab as a PhD student at the University of Magdeburg. Te-Wei has an MSc in Psychology from National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan and will be working on the role of the mammillary body in memory processing within the SFB1436. Welcome, Te-Wei!
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5 March 2025
The lab welcomes new MSc student Zahra Lashkari! Zahra is Iranian and currently studies Neuroscience at the University of Trieste. She recently won an Erasmus fellowship to study the role of accumbal cell types in spatial reward memory. Welcome, Zahra!
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25 January 2025
Barnstedt Lab goes on a hiking trip into the Harz mountains. Despite the cold and windy weather, we enjoy the fresh air, good company, and the lovely medieval town centre of Wernigerode!
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1 January 2025
Lam Bui officially joins Barnstedt Lab as its first PhD student. Lam has previously obtained his MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Bremen and is embarking on an exciting project identifying sub-second action coding in the hippocampus. Welcome, Lam!
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20 December 2024
Merry Christmas from Barnstedt and Petzold labs and a Happy New Year to everyone!
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2 December 2024
The lab welcomes their first postdoctoral researcher: Xiaoyu Yang recently completed her PhD on septal-hippocampal interactions in Hamburg and will start working on spatial memory coding in the nucleus accumbens.
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1 December 2024
BIG NEWS for the lab: Starting December 2024, the lab is moving to the European Neuroscience Institute (ENI-G) in Göttingen, as part of the Excellence Cluster Multiscale Bioimaging (MBExC), the University Medical Center (UMG), and the Max Planck Society.
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1 August 2024
Oliver discusses his career path from neuroscience undergrad to PI in this FENS podcast with Prof. Richard Roche.
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12 July 2024
We have secured funding for one postdoc and one PhD student to start working with us from September. Please spread the word! Deadline for applications is 31 July.
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27 June 2024
Oliver presented his work on hippocampus-accumbens projection neurons at a FENS Forum symposium in Vienna.
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19-21 June 2024
We had a great time presenting and discussing at this year’s Functional Architecture of Memory (FAM) conference in Magdeburg!
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10-11 June 2024
The inaugural Hippocampus Green Meeting in London was a great (and fun!) opportunity to catch up with hippocampus research in Europe. Thanks for organising, Lisa and Dan!
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27 April 2024
Oliver gives an 8 min live radio interview in German for radio show “Die Profis” on RadioEins where he explains the labs’ latest findings on hippocampus-accumbens projections to the lay public.
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17 April 2024
Our first student joins the lab: Melika Kashi Zenuzi is an Iranian student of the MSc in Integrative Neuroscience. She will start working on the role of hypothalamic subregions in memory processing. Welcome to the lab, Melika!
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12 April 2024
The lab’s latest paper just came out in Nature Communications! We describe a dorsal hippocampus-accumbens circuit that guides goal-directed appetitive behaviour. Code and data to reproduce all main figures are also online.
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1 April 2024
Barnstedt Lab officially opens its doors! First order of the day: office clean-up, bringing in the greenery, and ordering new furniture and computers. Stay tuned!
Meet the Team
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Oliver Barnstedt
Principal Investigator
Oliver received his MSc and DPhil at the University of Oxford where he investigated the neural circuit mechanisms of memory in Drosophila. As a postdoc at the DZNE Bonn and the LIN Magdeburg, he developed in vivo imaging methods in mice to understand projection-specific coding properties in memory circuits. In his spare time, he enjoys yoga, swimming, and reading sci-fi.
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Xiaoyu Yang
Postdoctoral researcher
Xiaoyu received her MSc in Neuroscience from Fudan University, China, before completing her PhD with Dietmar Kuhl and Ora Ohana at the University of Hamburg. Since December 2024, she is investigating spatial and memory coding in the nucleus accumbens. In her spare time, she’s bouldering and scuba diving.
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Lam Bui
PhD Student
Lam obtained his MSc in Neurosciences from the University of Bremen, working on primate visual processing. Since November 2024, he is working on his PhD for which he combines behavioural quantification methods and calcium imaging to understand action and reward memory processing in the hippocampus.
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Te-Wei Su
PhD Student (Magdeburg)
Te-Wei has an MSc in Psychology from National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan where he worked on hippocampal memory pathways using optogenetics. From April 2025, he is working in our lab, using 2P calcium imaging to understand the mammillary body and its role in Alzheimer’s disease, within the SFB1436.
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Melika Kashi Zenuzi
MSc Student (Magdeburg)
Melika received her BSc in Psychology from Islamic Azad University in Tehran and currently pursues an MSc in Integrative Neuroscience from OVGU Magdeburg. She is interested in the neural circuits mediating emotional states and memories.
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Zahra Lashkari
MSc Student (Erasmus)
Zahra received her Bachelor’s in Medical Laboratory Science from Qazvin University of Medical sciences in Tehran and currently pursues an MSc in Neuroscience at Trieste University. From March 2025, she is doing her Master’s thesis with us as an Erasmus student, working on the role of the mammillary body in memory formation.
Selected Publications
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Neuronal heterogeneity in the medial septum and diagonal band of Broca: classes and continua
Biorxiv, 2024
In this paper, we are using spatial transcriptomics and single-cell RNA sequencing to reveal the molecular landscape of neuronal subtypes in the medial septum and diagonal band of Broca.
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A hippocampus-accumbens code guides goal-directed appetitive behavior
Nature Communications, 2024
This paper shows how dorsal hippocampus projections into nucleus accumbens drive expression of spatial reward memories using conjunctive coding of spatial and behavioural information.
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A septal-ventral tegmental area circuit drives exploratory behavior
Neuron, 2024
In this paper, we demonstrate that a glutamatergic projection from the medial septum to the ventral tegmental area drives exploration behaviours in mice.
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Rapid adaptive remote focusing microscope for sensing of volumetric neural activity
Biomedical optics express, 2017
We have developed adaptive optics for two-photon microscopy to enable fast acquisition of volumetric neural activity.
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Re-evaluation of learned information in Drosophila
Nature, 2017
We describe a circuit motif in Drosophila, based on interactions between memory-relevant mushroom body output neurons and dopaminergic neurons, that underlies extinction and reconsolidation learning.
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Memory-Relevant Mushroom Body Output Synapses Are Cholinergic
Neuron, 2016
We solve the mystery of the main neurotransmitter of the invertebrate learning and memory centre – the mushroom body – using two-photon imaging combined with optogenetics.
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Functional Microarchitecture of the Mouse Dorsal Inferior Colliculus Revealed through In Vivo Two-Photon Calcium Imaging
Journal of Neuroscience, 2015
This is the first in vivo two-photon imaging study of the auditory midbrain. We show unexpected tonotopy on the level of somata and axonal projections from auditory cortex.
Resources
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MouseFlow
A Python toolbox to quantify facial and bodily movement in headfixed mice. Based on pre-trained pose estimation networks, using automatic segmentation, GPU-accelerated optical flow, and post-processing tools.
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LINdoscope
A two-week biennial EMBO Practical Course teaching in vivo optical tools and data analysis. Tutorials and code are freely available on Github. More info on the website.
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dHPC–NAc NatComms2024
We are providing all code and data to reproduce all main figures from Barnstedt et al. (2024), Nature Communications.
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Septum-VTA Neuron2024
We are providing code underlying the analysis, statistics and figure production for Mocellin, Barnstedt, et al. (2024), Neuron.
