research

about publications press projects

about

Our work is focused on understanding the sensory and circuit mechanisms at play in social interactions from an ethological perspective. We focus on the stages of social-sensory processing beginning with recognition and ending with social attachment. In between, we hope to disentangle both innate and learned aspects of kinship social behavior by probing and observing the dynamics of the underlying neural circuits.

We use a variety of techniques to achieve these goals: in vivo and in vitro extracellular and whole-cell patch clamp recordings; large-scale multi-area electrophysiology and imaging with freely-moving behavior; viral mediated connectivity and functional analyses; anatomical and histochemical analysis of functionally characterised neurons. We also have an interest in cross-disciplinary collaborations in the fields of evolutionary biology and psychology.

publications

Clemens A.M.^¥ and Brecht M. Neural representations of kinship. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. Special issue on the Social Brain (In Press) 2021.

Dennis E.J., El Hady A., Michaiel A., Clemens A., Tervo D., Voigts J., Datta S. Systems neuroscience of natural behaviors in rodents. Journal of Neuroscience. 2021.

Yuste R., Hawrylycz M., … Clemens A., …. Zeng H., Lein E.S. A community-based transcriptomics classification and nomenclature of neocortical cell types. Nature Neuroscience. 2020.

Clemens A.M.^¥, Wang H., Brecht M^¥. The lateral septum mediates kinship behavior in the rat. Nature Communications. 2020.

Clemens A.M., Lenschow C., Beed P., Li L., Sammons R., Naumann R.K., Wang H., Schmitz D., Brecht M. Estrus-Cycle Regulation of Cortical Inhibition**. Current Biology. 2019.

Clemens A.M.*, Delgado Y.F.*, Mehlman M.L.*, Mishra P.* and Brecht M. Multisensory and Motor Representation of Rat Oral Somatosensory Cortex. Scientific Reports. 2018.

Clemens A.M. and Johnston D. Age- and location-dependent differences in store depletion induced h-channel plasticity in hippocampal pyramidal neurons. Journal of Neurophysiology, 2013.

Kim J., Nadal M.S., Clemens A.M., Baron M., Jung S.C., Misumi Y., Rudy B., Hoffman D.A. Kv4 accessory protein DPPX is a critical regulator of membrane excitability in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2008.

Kim J., Jung S.C, Clemens A.M., Petralia R.S., Hoffman D.A. Regulation of dendritic excitability by activity-dependent trafficking of the A-type K+ channel subunit Kv4.2 in hippocampal neurons. Neuron, 2007.

**news and views: Delevich, K., Piekarski, D., Wilbrecht, L. Sex Hormones at Work in the Neocortex. Current Biology, 2019.

*equal contribution of authors

^¥corresponding author