Neurophysiology of Behavior

Principal Investigator: Benedetto Sacchetti

Group members:

Benedetto Sacchetti (Principal Investigator)
Giulia Concina (Postdoc)
Luisella Milano (University Research Technician)
Annamaria Renna (University Research Technician)

Address and contacts:

Benedetto Sacchetti, 0116708171, benedetto.sacchetti@unito.it

Main research activities of the research group
Our research group investigates the cellular mechanisms and brain circuits involved in learning and memory processes and in the regulation of emotional states. The study of these processes takes place through a multidisciplinary approach that includes behavioral analysis, molecular biology, in vivo electrophysiological recordings and opto- and chemo-genetic techniques. Through these methods, we study the neuronal populations and the cellular mechanisms activated by emotionally salient experiences (pleasant or aversive) in different brain areas (amygdala, hippocampus, sensory and associative cortices), and the neural mechanisms through which long-term memories of those events are formed.

List of 10 main publications

Concina G, Renna A, Milano L, Sacchetti B 2022 Prior fear-learning enables the immediate encoding of new fear memories in cortical networks Plos Biology 2022 Sep 30;20(9):e3001789.
Grosso A, Santoni G, Manassero E, Renna A, Sacchetti B 2018 A neuronal basis of fear discrimination in the lateral amygdala Nature Communications 9:1214.
Concina G, Renna A, Sacchetti B 2016 Coherent activity between prelimbic and auditory cortex in the slow gamma band underlies fear discrimination Journal of Neuroscience: 38, 8313-8328.
Cambiaghi M, Grosso A, Likthtik E, Concina G, Sacco T, J.A. Gordon, Sacchetti B. 2016 Higher order sensory cortex selectively drives basolateral amygdala activity during the recall of remote, but not recent, frightening memories. Journal of Neuroscience: 36, 1647-1659.
Grosso A, Cambiaghi M, Renna A, Milano L, Merlo GR, Sacco T, Sacchetti B. 2015 The assignment of the affective/motivational value to sensory stimuli is mediated by higher-order sensory cortices. Nature Communications 6, 8886.
Ruediger S, Vittori C, Strata P, Sacchetti B, Caroni P. 2011 Learning-related growth of feedforward inhibitory connectivity required for memory precision. Nature 473, 514-518.
Sacco T, Sacchetti B 2010 Role of secondary sensory cortices in emotional memory storage and retrieval in rats” Science 329, 649-656.
Scelfo B, Sacchetti B, Strata P. 2008 Learning-related long-term potentiation of inhibitory synapses in the cerebellar cortex” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 105,769-774.
Sacchetti B, Scelfo B, Tempia F, Strata P. 2004 Long-term synaptic changes induced in the cerebellar cortex by fear conditioning Neuron 42, 973-982.
Sacchetti, B., E. Baldi, C. Ambrogi Lorenzini, C. Bucherelli 2002 Cerebellar role in fear conditioning memorization Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 12, 8406-8411.