Kitamura Lab | UT Southwestern, Dallas, Texas

Research

The formation and maintenance of long-term memories for episodes and spaces are vital for daily life. The goal of our laboratory is to provide a biophysically-based mechanistic understanding of the neural process for learning and memory in the mouse brain by linking the elementary information processing and representation mechanisms of individual neurons and their microcircuits to animal behaviors in the entorhinal cortical hippocampal network. We also try to understand how learning and memory processing is impaired under psychotic conditions. To address these questions, we will examine neural circuit mechanisms for the behavior-dependent optimization of the brain’s spatiotemporal metrics by using mouse circuit genetics, retrograde trans-synaptic tracing, in vivo calcium imaging, electrophysiology in vivo and in vitro, and circuits/cell-type specific activity manipulating analysis.

Meet the Principal Investigator

Takashi Kitamura, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Dr. Kitamura graduated with a bachelor's degree in Biology from Kyushu University in Japan. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biology at Kyushu University, where he studied molecular mechanisms and the functional role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in rodent brains. After a Post-Doc at Mitsubishi-Kagaku institute of life science in Tokyo, Japan, and as an Assistant Professor at Toyama University in Japan, he conducted neural circuits genetics as a Research Scientist at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, where he applied techniques of advanced mouse genetics, cell-type specific neural tracing, in vivo calcium imaging, in vivo, and in vitro electrophysiology, and optogenetic manipulation techniques to understand how episodic memory is formed and stored in the brain. Dr. Kitamura joined the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry in 2017.

Visuotactile integration facilitates mirror-induced self-directed behavior through activation of hippocampal neuronal ensembles in mice

Yokose J, Marks WD, Kitamura T, 2024 Neuron 2 112 306-318.e8

Systems consolidation induces multiple memory engrams for a flexible recall strategy in observational fear memory in male mice.

Terranova JI, Yokose J, Osanai H, Ogawa SK, Kitamura T, 2023 Jul Nat Commun 1 14 3976

Hippocampal-amygdala memory circuits govern experience-dependent observational fear.

Terranova JI, Yokose J, Osanai H, Marks WD, Yamamoto J, Ogawa SK, Kitamura T, 2022 Feb Neuron

The role of engram cells in the systems consolidation of memory.

Tonegawa S, Morrissey MD, Kitamura T 2018 Jul Nat. Rev. Neurosci.

Engrams and circuits crucial for systems consolidation of a memory.

Kitamura T, Ogawa SK, Roy DS, Okuyama T, Morrissey MD, Smith LM, Redondo RL, Tonegawa S 2017 Apr Science 6333 356 73-78

Island cells control temporal association memory.

Kitamura T, Pignatelli M, Suh J, Kohara K, Yoshiki A, Abe K, Tonegawa S 2014 Feb Science 6173 343 896-901

Adult neurogenesis modulates the hippocampus-dependent period of associative fear memory.

Kitamura T, Saitoh Y, Takashima N, Murayama A, Niibori Y, Ageta H, Sekiguchi M, Sugiyama H, Inokuchi K 2009 Nov Cell 4 139 814-27

Outer layer of Vb neurons in medial entorhinal cortex project to hippocampal dentate gyrus in mice.

Yamamoto N, Yokose J, Ramesh K, Kitamura T, Ogawa SK, 2024 Feb Mol Brain 1 17 5

Understanding Others' Distress Through Past Experiences: The Role of Memory Engram Cells in Observational Fear.

Kitamura T, Ramesh K, Terranova JI, 2024 Adv Neurobiol 38 215-234

Optogenetic activation of dopamine D1 receptors in island cells of medial entorhinal cortex inhibits temporal association learning.

Yokose J, Yamamoto N, Ogawa SK, Kitamura T, 2023 Nov Mol Brain 1 16 78

Dissecting cell-type-specific pathways in medial entorhinal cortical-hippocampal network for episodic memory.

Osanai H, Nair IR, Kitamura T, 2023 May J Neurochem

Extracting electromyographic signals from multi-channel LFPs using independent component analysis without direct muscular recording.

Osanai H, Yamamoto J, Kitamura T, 2023 Jun Cell Rep Methods 6 3 100482

Neuronal Ensembles Organize Activity to Generate Contextual Memory.

Marks WD, Yokose J, Kitamura T, Ogawa SK, 2022 Front Behav Neurosci 16 805132

Learning and memory: Shuffling memory traces by relearning.

Yokose J, Terranova JI, Kitamura T, 2021 Dec Curr Biol 24 31 R1588-R1591

Entorhinal cortical Island cells regulate temporal association learning with long trace period.

Yokose J, Marks WD, Yamamoto N, Ogawa SK, Kitamura T, 2021 09 Learn Mem 9 28 319-328

Cell-Type-Specific Optogenetic Techniques Reveal Neural Circuits Crucial for Episodic Memories.

Yamamoto N, Marks WD, Kitamura T, 2021 Adv Exp Med Biol 1293 429-447

Extra neural ensemble disrupts memory recall.

Kim R, Yamamoto N, Kitamura T, 2020 Jun Nat. Neurosci.

Complementary roles of differential medial entorhinal cortex inputs to the hippocampus for the formation and integration of temporal and contextual memory (Systems Neuroscience).

Marks WD, Yamamoto N, Kitamura T, 2020 Apr Eur. J. Neurosci.

Adult hippocampal neurogenesis for systems consolidation of memory.

Terranova JI, Ogawa SK, Kitamura T, 2019 Oct Behav. Brain Res. 372 112035

Novel nose poke-based temporal discrimination tasks with concurrent in vivo calcium imaging in freely moving mice.

Marks WD, Osanai H, Yamamoto J, Ogawa SK, Kitamura T, 2019 Nov Mol Brain 1 12 90

Hybrid Microdrive System with Recoverable Opto-Silicon Probe and Tetrode for Dual-Site High Density Recording in Freely Moving Mice.

Osanai H, Kitamura T, Yamamoto J, 2019 Aug J Vis Exp 150

Orchestrated ensemble activities constitute a hippocampal memory engram.

Ghandour K, Ohkawa N, Fung CCA, Asai H, Saitoh Y, Takekawa T, Okubo-Suzuki R, Soya S, Nishizono H, Matsuo M, Osanai M, Sato M, Ohkura M, Nakai J, Hayashi Y, Sakurai T, Kitamura T, Fukai T, Inokuchi K, 2019 06 Nat Commun 1 10 2637

Adult Neurogenesis Conserves Hippocampal Memory Capacity.

Alam MJ, Kitamura T, Saitoh Y, Ohkawa N, Kondo T, Inokuchi K 2018 Jul J. Neurosci.

Driving and regulating temporal association learning coordinated by entorhinal-hippocampal network.

Kitamura T 2017 May Neurosci. Res.

Distinct Neural Circuits for the Formation and Retrieval of Episodic Memories.

Roy DS, Kitamura T, Okuyama T, Ogawa SK, Sun C, Obata Y, Yoshiki A, Tonegawa S 2017 Aug Cell 5 170 1000-1012.e19

Ventral CA1 neurons store social memory.

Okuyama T, Kitamura T, Roy DS, Itohara S, Tonegawa S 2016 09 Science 6307 353 1536-1541

Entorhinal Cortical Ocean Cells Encode Specific Contexts and Drive Context-Specific Fear Memory.

Kitamura T, Sun C, Martin J, Kitch LJ, Schnitzer MJ, Tonegawa S 2015 Sep Neuron 6 87 1317-31

Entorhinal-hippocampal neuronal circuits bridge temporally discontiguous events.

Kitamura T, Macdonald CJ, Tonegawa S 2015 Sep Learn. Mem. 9 22 438-43

Distinct speed dependence of entorhinal island and ocean cells, including respective grid cells.

Sun C, Kitamura T, Yamamoto J, Martin J, Pignatelli M, Kitch LJ, Schnitzer MJ, Tonegawa S 2015 Jul Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 30 112 9466-71

Differential roles of the dopamine 1-class receptors, D1R and D5R, in hippocampal dependent memory.

Sariñana J, Kitamura T, Künzler P, Sultzman L, Tonegawa S 2014 Jun Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 22 111 8245-50

Cell type-specific genetic and optogenetic tools reveal hippocampal CA2 circuits.

Kohara K, Pignatelli M, Rivest AJ, Jung HY, Kitamura T, Suh J, Frank D, Kajikawa K, Mise N, Obata Y, Wickersham IR, Tonegawa S 2014 Feb Nat. Neurosci. 2 17 269-79

Role of adult neurogenesis in hippocampal-cortical memory consolidation.

Kitamura T, Inokuchi K 2014 Feb Mol Brain 7 13

Hippocampal function is not required for the precision of remote place memory.

Kitamura T, Okubo-Suzuki R, Takashima N, Murayama A, Hino T, Nishizono H, Kida S, Inokuchi K 2012 Feb Mol Brain 5 5

Comprehensive behavioural study of GluR4 knockout mice: implication in cognitive function.

Sagata N, Iwaki A, Aramaki T, Takao K, Kura S, Tsuzuki T, Kawakami R, Ito I, Kitamura T, Sugiyama H, Miyakawa T, Fukumaki Y 2010 Nov Genes Brain Behav. 8 9 899-909

LTP induction within a narrow critical period of immature stages enhances the survival of newly generated neurons in the adult rat dentate gyrus.

Kitamura T, Saitoh Y, Murayama A, Sugiyama H, Inokuchi K 2010 Apr Mol Brain 3 13

Running wheel exercises accelerate neuronal turnover in mouse dentate gyrus.

Kitamura T, Sugiyama H 2006 Sep Neurosci. Res. 1 56 45-52

Dietary restriction increases hippocampal neurogenesis by molecular mechanisms independent of NMDA receptors.

Kitamura T, Mishina M, Sugiyama H 2006 Jan Neurosci. Lett. 2-3 393 94-6

Enhancement of neurogenesis by running wheel exercises is suppressed in mice lacking NMDA receptor epsilon 1 subunit.

Kitamura T, Mishina M, Sugiyama H 2003 Sep Neurosci. Res. 1 47 55-63

Lab Alumni

Norimichi Ito, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Nagoya University, Japan

Ryang Kim, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Tokyo, Japan

Joseph Terranova, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Midwestern University

William Marks, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Instruction at University of Texas Dallas