Lucia Jacobs
Associate Professor (Psychology)
Email: jacobs@berkeley.edu
Research areas: Systems and Computational Neuroscience, Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience
The goal of the research in my lab is to understand how the brain evolved to create representations of the external world and such representations have been adapted by evolution to create complex thought processes. We study a range of cognitive processes – from the concrete (i.e., how to get home) to the abstract (i.e., recognizing transitive relationships). We study many species solving similar problems: laboratory mice, fox and flying squirrels, kangaroo rats, voles and most recently, humans. We compare species that have recently diverged and also species who are solving the same problem with convergence mechanisms. What ties our behavioral studies together is the brain structure they have in common, the hippocampus.
Current projects
The parallel map theory (PMT; Jacobs and Schenk, 2003) describes how the mammalian hippocampus creates dual, parallel spatial representations that are anatomically and functionally dissociable. Because of map independence, spatial orientation can be rescued when one map is impaired. PMT presents a new way to understand not only hippocampal function but to understand how spatial orientation is organized in terms of cognitive mechanism. Some of the questions we are currently examining include: comparing sex differences in spatial encoding in laboratory mice and in humans, navigating virtual environments; examining species differences in spatial encoding and orientation in different species of squirrels that are adapted to different physical environments; using PMT and ethological methods to study how neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Down Syndrome, selectively impair the hippocampus, in collaboration with geneticists and neuroscientists at Stanford and USCF.
Selected Publications
Waisman, A. S. & Jacobs, L. F. 2008. Flexibility of cue use in the fox squirrel (Sciurus niger). Animal Cognition 11(3): in press/online.
Barkley, C. L. & Jacobs, L. F. 2007. Sex and species differences in spatial memory in food-storing kangaroo rats. Animal Behaviour, 73, 321-329.
Gibbs, S. E. B., Lea, S. E. A. & Jacobs, L. F. 2007. Flexible use of spatial cues in the southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans). Animal Cognition, 10, 203-9.
Jacobs, L. F. 2006. From movement to transitivity: the role of hippocampal parallel maps in configural learning, Reviews in Neuroscience 17, 99-109.
Jacobs, L. F. 2003. The evolution of the cognitive map, Brain, Behavior & Evolution 62, 128-139.
Jacobs, L. F. & Schenk, F. 2003. Unpacking the cognitive map: the parallel map theory of hippocampal function. Psychological Review, 110, 285-315.
Lavenex, P., Steele, M. A. & Jacobs, L. F. 2000. The seasonal pattern of cell proliferation and neuron number in the dentate gyrus of wild adult eastern grey squirrels. European Journal of Neuroscience, 12, 643-648.
