Research
Emotional memories mediate adaptive behaviora
l reactions to dangerous and rewarding situations. However, memories acquired during intense emotional experiences also contribute to debilitating conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. One basis for these powerful effects is the association of stimuli that were encountered during trauma or drug use with the experience of threat or pleasure. Our laboratory aims to understand how such associations are stored in the brain, and identify circuit mechanisms by which they can be alleviated.
We utilize a combination of approaches including optogenetics, synaptic electrophysiology and calcium imaging, to identify how neural pathways and individual neurons are engaged and modified during memory storage. Once memories are established, other experiments address the mechanisms that contribute to their reinforcement or attenuation by molecular and behavioral interventions.
Contact Us
Clem Laboratory
Roger Clem, PhD
Associate Professor, Neuroscience
Associate Professor, Psychiatry
Location
Lab: HESS 9-301
Office: HESS 9-112
Phone
Office: 212.824.8976
Email
Publications
2022
Cummings, KA, Bayshtok, S, Dong, TN, Clem, RL. 2022. Control of fear by prefrontal GABAergic populations encoding valence-specific information. Neuron 110(18):3036-3052.
2021
Cummings, KA, Lacagnina, AF, Clem, RL. 2021. GABAergic microcircuitry of fear memory encoding. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 184:107504.
Roman-Ortiz, C, Guevara, JA, Clem, RL. 2021. GABAergic basal forebrain projections to the periacqueductal gray promote food consumption, reward and predation. Scientific Reports 11(1): 22638.
2020
Cummings, KA, Clem RL. 2020. Prefrontal somatostatin interneurons encode fear memory. Nature Neuroscience. 23(1):61-74.
Bicks, L, Yamamuro, K, Flanigan, M, Kim, J, Kato, D, Lucas, E, Koike, H, Peng, M, Brady, D, Chandrasekaran, S, Norman, K, Smith, M, Clem, RL, Russo, S, Akbarian, S, Morishita, H. 2020. Prefrontal parvalbumin interneurons require juvenile social experience to establish adult social behavior. Nature Communications 11(1):1003.
Flanigan, M, Aleyasin, H, LeClair, K, Lucas, EK, Matikainen-Ankey, B, Menard, C, Bouchard, S, Pfau, ML, Golden, S, Calipari, ES, Nestler, EJ, DiLeone, RJ, Yamanaka, A, Huntley, GW, Clem, RL, Russo, SJ. 2020. Orexin signaling in the lateral habenula encodes the valence of aggressive social encounters. Nature Neuroscience. 2020 May;23(5):638-650.
Nabel, E, Garkun, Y, Koike, H, Taccheri, G, Demars, M, Norman, K, Susanna, I, Caro, K, Lopez, S, Hof, P, Clem, RL, Morishita, H. 2020. Adolescent top-down neurons receive heightened local drive to establish adult attentional behavior in mice. Nature Communications. 2020 Aug 7;11(1):3983.
Chen L, Cummings K, Mau W, Zaki Y, Dong Z, Rabinowitz S, Clem RL, Shuman T, DJ Cai. The role of intrinsic excitability in the evolution of memory: Significance in memory allocation, consolidation, and updating. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. 2020 Sep;173:107266.
2019
Lucas EK, Wu WC, Roman-Ortiz C, Clem RL. Prazosin during fear conditioning facilitates subsequent extinction in male C57Bl/6N mice. Psychopharmacology (Berl). Aug 15. doi: 10.1007/s00213-018-5001-x. [Epub ahead of print]
2018
Lucas EK, Clem RL. GABAergic interneurons: The orchestra or the conductor in fear learning and memory? 2018. Brain Res Bull 141:13-19. doi: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2017.11.016. Epub 2017 Dec 2.
2017
Optogenetic Examination of Prefrontal-Amygdala Synaptic Development. 2017. Arruda-Carvalho M, Wu WC, Cummings KA, Clem RL. J Neurosci. 2017 Mar 15;37(11):2976-2985. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3097-16.2017.
The BigLEN-GPR171 Peptide Receptor System Within the Basolateral Amygdala Regulates Anxiety-Like Behavior and Contextual Fear Conditioning. 2017. Bobeck EN, Gomes I, Pena D, Cummings KA, Clem RL, Mezei M, Devi LA. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2017 Apr 20. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.79.
Prazosin during threat discrimination boosts memory of the safe stimulus. 2017. Homan P, Murrough JW, Soleimani L, Bach DR, Clem RL, Schiller D. Learning and Memory. In press.
2016
Clem RL, Schiller D. New Learning and Unlearning: Strangers or Accomplices in Threat Memory Attenuation? Trends Neurosci. 2016 May;39(5):340-51. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2016.03.003. Epub 2016 Apr 12.
Elizabeth K. Lucas, Anita M. Jegarl, Hirofumi Morishita, Roger L. Clem. Multimodal and Site-Specific Plasticity of Amygdala Parvalbumin Interneurons after Fear Learning. Neuron. 2016 Jul 12. pii: S0896-6273(16)30310-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.06.032. [Epub ahead of print].
2015
Arruda-Carvalho M, Clem RL. Prefrontal-amygdala fear networks come into focus. Front Syst Neurosci. 2015 Oct 30;9:145. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2015.00145. eCollection 2015
2014
Arruda-Carvalho M, Clem RL. Pathway-Selective Adjustment of Prefrontal-Amygdala Transmission during Fear Encoding.J Neurosci. 2014 Nov 19;34(47):15601-9. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2664-14.2014.
Steinfurth EC, Kanen JW, Raio CM, Clem RL, Huganir RL, Phelps EA. Young and old Pavlovian fear memories can be modified with extinction training during reconsolidation in humans. Learn Mem. 2014 Jun 16;21(7):338-41.
Lucas, EK, A Jegarl and RL Clem. 2014. Mice lacking TrkB in parvalbumin-positive cells exhibit sexually dimorphic behavioral phenotypes. Behavioural Brain Research: advance online Aug 12.
2013
Clem, RL, RL Huganir. 2013. Norepinephrine enhances a discrete form of long-term depression during fear memory storage. J Neurosci 33(29): 11825-32. PMC3713724.
Ming-Sia, G, RL Clem and RL Huganir. 2013. The human language-associated gene SRPX2 regulates synapse formation and vocalization in mice. Science 342(6161):987-91.
2011
Anggono V, Clem RL, Huganir RL. PICK1 loss of function occludes homeostatic synaptic scaling. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2011 Feb; 31(6).
Meet the Team
Anthony Lacagnina, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Tri Dong
PhD Student
Kelsey Heslin, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Rasika Iyer
Lab Manager
Amanda Russo, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (alumni)
Current position: Medical writer
Kirstie Cummings, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (alumni)
Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Alabama Birmingham
Anosha Khawaja
Lab Manager (alumni)
Current position: PhD student, Boston University
Ciorana Roman Ortiz, PhD
PhD Student (alumni)
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA
Sabina Bayshtok
Laboratory Manager (alumni)
Current position: MD student
Darpan Chakraborty
Postdoctoral Fellow (alumni)
Beth Lucas, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (alumni)
Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Alabama Birmingham
Maithe Carvalho, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (alumni)
Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Scarborough
Wan-Chen (Amy) Wu
Master's Student (alumni)
Current position: PhD Student, University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio
Anita Jegarl
Undergraduate Researcher (alumni)
Current position: MD student, Yale
Atichai Suwannapeng
Undergraduate Researcher (alumni)
Kristina Cechova
Undergraduate Researcher (alumni)
Emily Beckett
Undergraduate Researcher (alumni)
Job Openings
Graduate Positions
Graduate positions are available to study the cellular and circuit basis of fear conditioning and extinction, with a special interest in molecular and synaptic contributions to memory storage and updating.
To inquire about positions, please send you curriculum vitae and the names of at least 3 references to roger.clem@mssm.edu.