Publications
A short overview of my authored publications. Let me know if you cannot access them, I will happily provide you with a PDF!
2024
Fresh out of the oven: Using the unsupervised dimensionality reduction approach developed by lead author Guillaume Etter, we show that the neurons we record from the dorsal hippocampus and lateral septum in freely moving mice can track time and distance. Theis is then modulated by sensory inputs and the demans of the task itself. This is very fun, because reduces the need to record mice in specifically developed tasks like treadmills, and allows us to study these systems in increasingly naturalistic settings! Fun stuff to come.
Now in Cell Reports: Idiothetic representations are modulated by availability of sensory inputs and task demands in the hippocampal-septal circuit. Etter G., van der Veldt S., Mosser C-A, Hasselmo M. E., Williams S. (2024). Cell Reports, Volume 43, Issue 11
Open access article here!
Preprint alert!
New year, new preprint! Check out our new BioRxiv (currently under review at Nature Neuroscience!), jampacked with calcium data (a whopping 30 000 CA1 neurons) and new analysis approaches. In this one, we dive into time and distance coding of the hippampal CA1 region. Not only do we provide a cool model to show that these codes originate from grid cell inputs, but we also dive into how these codes are then transitted to - my favorite - the lateral septum!
A very very fun project, led by first author Guillaume Etter, together with yours truly Suzanne van der Veldt, Coralie-Anne Mosser, Michael Hasselmo and Sylvain Williams.
Check out the preprint!
2023
Now out on Nature Communications: Optogenetic scrambling of hippocampal theta oscillations dissociates working memory retrieval fro hippocampal spatiotemporal codes. Etter, G., van der Veldt S., Choi, J., Williams, S. (2023). Nat Commun (14).
Open access article here!
Hot off the press!
Optogenetic scrambling of hippocampal theta oscillations alters working memory retrieval but not hippocampal spatiotemporal codes. Etter, G., van der Veldt S., Choi, J., Williams, S. BioRxiv.
Led by first author Guillaume Etter, this article uses a combination of calcium imaging, optogenetics, an Arduino and a maze made of Lego bricks to disentangle spatial and temporal codes in the hippocampus. Strikingly, ablation of theta (using Chrimson scrambled stims!) impairs working memory while leaving HPC spatiotemporal codes intact. Omg!
Read the full story on bioRxiv!
2021
Conjunctive spatial and self-motion codes are topographically organized in the GABAergic cells of the lateral septum. van der Veldt S., Etter G., Mosser C.-A., Manseau F., Williams S. (2021). PLoS Biology, 19(8): e3001383.
This publication was the direct result of the work I did In Dr. Sylvain Williams lab as part of my doctoral training. This article is the first account of lateral septum spatial processing using miniaturized microscopes, in which I systematically characterized and compared the spatial tuning of LS GABAergic cells to those of dorsal CA3 and CA1 cells. We observe an anatomical organisation to spatial and self-motion tuned cells, as well as long term stability of these codes. Mouse in the figure is made by C-A Mosser.
Read the full publication here!
Example of dopaminergic innervation in LS (van der Veldt, 2021)
PhD thesis: Encoding of space and self-motion by GABAergic cells of the lateral septum (2021), van der Veldt S.
This thesis focused on the anatomical organisation of LS afferents and efferents via retrograde and anterograde trans-synaptic tracing, and digs deeper into the characterization of spatial and self motion correlates of the LS using information theory and Bayesian decoding approaches.
A full 259 pages for your enjoyment available here!
2019
Etter G., van der Veldt S., Zarrinkoub I., Trillaud-Doppia E., & Williams S. (2019). Optogenetic gamma stimulation rescues memory retrieval in Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. Nature Communications, 10(1), 1-11. Read our publication here.
This co-authored publication was part of a project I collaborated on during my doctoral training in the Dr. Sylvain Williams laboratory. In this study, led by Dr. Etter, we show that optogenetic stimulation of parvalbumin neurons at 40 Hz restores hippocampal slow gamma oscillations amplitude, and phase-amplitude coupling of the J20 Alzheimer’s Disease mouse model. Strikingly, we found that inducing slow gamma oscillations during retrieval rescued spatial memory in mice.
Expression of optogenetic opsin ChETA-eYFP in medial septum parvalbumin neurons (green, eYFP; magenta, PV immunostaining; Etter et al., 2019)
Ducrocq F., Walle R., Contini A., Oummadi A., Caraballo B., van der Veldt S., … Trifilieff P. (2019). Causal Link between n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Deficiency and Motivation Deficits. Cell Metabolism Cell metabolism, 31(4), 755-772. Check this out here!
I was lucky to be part of this project while doing my first MSc lab rotation in the NutriNeuro lab. First author Fabien Ducrocq sought whether a decrease in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids could underlie deficits in reward processing.
2017
Carus-Cadavieco M., Gorbati M., Ye L., Bender F., van der Veldt S., Kosse C., … Korotkova T. (2017). Gamma oscillations organize top-down signalling to hypothalamus and enable food seeking. Nature, 542(7640), 232–236. You can read it here!
This was one was a banger! I contributed to this work as part of my MSc thesis research, for which I joined the Behavioural Neurodynamics Research Group at the FMP Institute/NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence in Berlin, under direct supervision of lab leaders Dr. Tatiana Korotkova and Dr. Alexey Ponomarenko. I had the exciting opportunity to learn optogenetics and electrophysiology in behaving animals, which included engineering tasks in the lab workshop, complex surgical implantations, neuronal recordings in behaving mice, data processing and viral injections. We identified an important target for the better understanding of eating disorders, which often show a disconnection between food-seeking and necessary food intake.
Fernández de Cossío L., Guzmán A., van der Veldt S., & Luheshi G. N. (2017). Prenatal infection leads to ASD-like behavior and altered synaptic pruning in the mouse offspring. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 63, 88–98.
My most cited research contributon to date! This article was the product of a short stay in the lab of Giamal Luheshi, where first author Lourdes Fernández de Cossío generously accepted me under her wings to learn how to induce maternal immune activation using bacterial lipopolysaccharide, and assess the behaviors offspring during postnatal development. I helped co-write the manuscript and learned a ton!
Trifilieff P., Ducrocq F., van der Veldt S., & Martinez D. (2017). Blunted Dopamine Transmission in Addiction: Potential Mechanisms and Implications for Behavior. Seminars in Nuclear Medicine, 47(1), 64–74.
The first time my name ever appeared on pubmed, so exciting! Dr. Pierre Trifilieff was kind enough to let me collaborate on this extensive review. If you want to do some leisurely sunday afternoon reading on altered dopamine transmission, this might be the one! Check it out here.