Abstract
During my talk, I will give an overview of my research into behavioral and neural correlates of procedural memories in humans. I will start by talking about brain networks involved in different aspects of motor sequence learning. Next, I will present evidence for the experience-driven plasticity and reorganization within the motor network. I will then focus on the role of sleep in memory consolidation and will report our new results that link temporal sleep spindle clustering to spontaneous reactivation of the task-related network.
Short bio
Ella Gabitov, Ph.D., is a Research Associate at the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre of the Montreal Neurological Institute affiliated with McGill University. In her research, she uses a multimodal approach combining psychophysics and cutting-edge technologies for non-invasive neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG) to study neural mechanisms underlying acquisition of procedural (“how-to”) knowledge in humans. This “how-to” knowledge is at the basis of cognitive and executive skills that allow adaptive behaviors necessary for effective everyday functioning. Areas of her special interest include motor skill consolidation, reactivation-based plasticity, and the role of sleep in these memory-related processes. Dr. Gabitov received her undergraduate degree in mathematics and philosophy. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Haifa, Israel. Over the course of her graduate training, she worked under the supervision of Prof. Avi Karni studying neural substrates underlying encoding, consolidation and generalization of motor skills. In 2014, she joined the laboratory of Prof. Julien Doyon at the University of Montreal to study the role of sleep in procedural and declarative memories. In 2018, she was invited to continue her research at the Montreal Neurological Institute (The Neuro). During her research career, Dr. Gabitov contributed to major brain science initiatives such as the Human Brain Project (HBP) and Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives (HBHL). Funding agencies supporting her research include the ERA-NET NEURON, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS).