
Early dopamine disruption in the entorhinal cortex of a knock-in model of Alzheimer’s disease
Tatsuki Nakagawa, Jiayun L Xie, Marjan Savadkohighodjanaki, Yutian J Zhang, Heechul Jun, Kai Cao, Ayana Ichii, Jason Y Lee, Shogo Soma, Yasmeen K Medhat, Takaomi C Saido & Kei M. Igarashi*
Nature Neuroscience, In Press

Prefrontal and lateral entorhinal neurons
co-dependently learn item–outcome rules
Heechul Jun†, Jason Y. Lee†, Nicholas R. Bleza, Ayana Ichii, Jordan D. Donohue, & Kei M. Igarashi*
Nature (2024)
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07868-1
Where in the brain is abstract map generated?
It is the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), working together!!
UCI NEWS: UC Irvine discovery of ‘item memory’ brain cells offers new Alzheimer’s treatment target

Entorhinal cortex dysfunction
in Alzheimer’s disease
Kei M Igarashi*
Trends in Neurosciences (2023)
doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2022.11.006
*Cover Article
The cover illustration was made by Aehyn Shin

Reconciling neuronal representations of schema, abstract task structure, and categorization
under cognitive maps in the
entorhinal-hippocampal-frontal circuits
Kei M Igarashi*, Jason Y Lee & Heechul Jun
Curr Opin Neurobiol (2022)
doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2022.102641

Tsukasa Funane†, Heechul Jun†, Stephanie Sutoko†, Takaomi C Saido, Akihiko Kandori, Kei M Igarashi*
Front Syst Neurosci (2022)
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2022.955178 (2022)

Dopamine facilitates associative memory encoding in the entorhinal cortex
Jason Y. Lee†, Heechul Jun†, Shogo Soma†, Tomoaki Nakazono†, Kaori Shiraiwa, Ananya Dasgupta, Tatsuki Nakagawa, Jiayun L. Xie, Jasmine Chavez, Rodrigo Romo, Sandra Yungblut, Meiko Hagihara, Koshi Murata & Kei M. Igarashi*
Nature (2021)
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03948-8
We found that dopamine facilitates associative memory encoding of fan cells in the lateral entorhinal cortex. Collaborative work by Jason, Heechul, Shogo & Tom.
UCI NEWS: New research “sniffs out” how associative memories are formed

Disrupted Place Cell Remapping and Impaired Grid Cells in a Knockin Model of Alzheimer’s Disease
Heechul Jun, Shogo Soma, Takashi Saito, Takaomi C Saido, Kei M Igarashi*
Neuron (2020)
107:1095-1112
Heechul found that the remapping of place cells and grid cells were impaired in a third generation Alzheimer’s disease mouse model.
Our work suggests that spatial memory loss in Alzheimer’s patients is caused by the remapping impairment of place cells in the hippocampus.
Preview in Neuron
The Sound of Silence: Hidden Responses of Neural Circuits to Alzheimer-Linked Mutations
Press release from UCI School of Medicine
New discovery reveals brain network mechanism that causes spatial memory impairment in Alzheimer’s disease
Discussion in AlzForum
In APP Knock-In Mice, Spatial Mapping Circuitry Crumbles