Dumas receives funding for study of how distinct NMDA receptor signaling domains regulate hippocampal network dynamics

Dumas Receives Funding For Study Of How Distinct NMDA Receptor Signaling Domains Regulate Hippocampal Network Dynamics

Theodore Dumas, Associate Professor, Psychology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), received funding for the project: “Distinct NMDA receptor signaling domains regulate hippocampal network dynamics.

Dumas and his collaborators hypothesize that in wildtype mice, NMDA receptors regulate hippocampal network oscillatory activity (slow gamma frequency) in the absence of ion conductance (nonionotropic) and that enhancing GluN2B subunit-type nonionotropic signaling will increase slow gamma power and enhance spatial memory retrieval.

The researchers will test these hypotheses by assessing slow gamma oscillations (and coupling with other pertinent oscillatory bands), particularly during immobility prior to movement to a known goal location, and spatial memory accuracy in mice expressing chimeric GluN2 subunits in: 1) forebrain principal cells, 2) hippocampal principal cells, or 3) hippocampal parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons.

This study is the first of its kind to differentiate the roles of two separate NMDA receptor signaling streams in the regulation of hippocampal network activity and spatial memory retrieval. Outcomes from this study will explain why treatments for schizophrenia directed at NMDA receptors in general are only moderately effective and will identify more specific therapeutics targets.

Dumas received $231,547 from the National Institutes of Health for this project. Funding began in Aug. 2024 and will end in late July 2026.

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