Abdel Rayan
Post-Doc
abdelrahman.n.rayan[a]gmail.com
Although we made considerable progress in understanding the basic neural mechanisms underlying memory formation, we lack the knowledge of how information is extracted from single memory episodes to form semantic memories. My current work at Genzel’s Lab focuses on examining the neural mechanisms involved in memory formation and their parallel transformation into semantic knowledge using the object space task. Furthermore, I am developing automatic sleep scoring tools to explore the exact contribution of different sleep stages to memory formation and information transfer from the hippocampus to the cortex.
I recently completed my PhD studies in the lab of Prof. Manahan-Vaughan and was co-supervised by Prof. Nikolai Axamcher at the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. During my PhD, I identified the different electrophysiological correlates – in the hippocampal CA1 region and DG- associated with specific behavioral outcomes while rodents were engaged in performing a T-maze spatial appetitive task. Furthermore, I examined the dynamics of head direction cells in a behavioral paradigm where both allothetic and idiothetic cues were in conflict with each other.
Publications from the lab:
A Rayan, AB Szabo, L Genzel (2023) The pros and cons of using automated sleep scoring in sleep research: Comparative analysis of automated sleep scoring in human and rodents: advantages and limitations Sleep,
I Navarro-Lobato, A Aleman-Zapata, A Samanta, Mi Bogers, S Narayanan, A Rayan, A Alonso, J van der Meij, M Khamassi, Z Khan, L Genzel, (2023) Learning Fast and Slow: Increased cortical plasticity leads to memory interference and enhanced hippocampal-cortical interactions Elife (bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.21.517356)
Rayan, A., Agarwal, A., Samanta, A., Severijnen, E., van der Meij, J., & Genzel, L. Sleep scoring in rodents: Criteria, automatic approaches and outstanding issues. European Journal of Neuroscience, n/a(n/a). doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15884
Samanta, A., Aleman-Zapata, A., Agarwal, K., Özsezer, P., Alonso, A., van der Meij, J., Rayan, A., Navarro-Lobato, I., & Genzel, L. (2023). CBD lengthens sleep, shortens ripples and leads to intact simple but worse cumulative memory. iScience bioRxiv, doi:10.1101/2023.02.28.530388