Background and activities
Menno P. Witter heads the functional neuroanatomy research group, started in 2007. He is director of the Norwegian Research School in Neuroscience.
I received my Ph.D. at the VU University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where I subsequently started my independent research on the anatomical organization of the hippocampal region. In my early work, I postulated the existence of functional differentiations within both the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex based on thorough anatomical studies of their connectivity .
After many years of productive collaborations with May-Britt and Edvard Moser leading to the discovery of grid cells in 2004/5, I joined the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience NTNU in 2007, where I started my own research group. The current work of my group focusses on the functional architecture of the lateral and medial entorhinal cortex with the aim to contribute to the explanation of their functional differences. We study input/output in relation to local circuitry, with emphasis on the specific neurons and layers that receive or send information from and to other brain areas. We study the wiring of indentified neuron types in the entorhinal cortex. Such information allows us to formulate more biologically precise descriptions of entorhinal networks. In addition, this information has a potential translational relevance. We have identified a cell-specific change in the expression of proteins in entorhinal layer II which seem involved in the early phases of Alzheimer’s disease, as studied in animal models.
Together with colleagues at various universities in Norway, I initiated the Norwegian Research School in Neuroscience in 2013 and act as its director. I hold visiting researcher positions at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and John Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA and I currently chair the Committee for Higher Edcuation and Training of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies FENS. I am an elected member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, the Norwegian Academy of Science, and recipient of the 2016 Olav Thon Foundation International Research Award.
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Scientific, academic and artistic work
A selection of recent journal publications, artistic productions, books, including book and report excerpts. See all publications in the database
Journal publications
- (2018) Development of Parvalbumin-Expressing Basket Terminals in Layer II of the Rat Medial Entorhinal Cortex. eNeuro. vol. 5 (3).
- (2018) Marked Diversity of Unique Cortical Enhancers Enables Neuron-Specific Tools by Enhancer-Driven Gene Expression. Current Biology. vol. 28 (13).
- (2018) Architecture and Organization of Mouse Posterior Parietal Cortex Relative to Extrastriate Areas. European Journal of Neuroscience.
- (2018) Inhibitory Connectivity Dominates the Fan Cell Network in Layer II of Lateral Entorhinal Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience. vol. 38 (45).
- (2018) Intrinsic Projections of Layer Vb Neurons to Layers Va, III, and II in the Lateral and Medial Entorhinal Cortex of the Rat. Cell reports. vol. 24.
- (2018) Entorhinal fast-spiking speed cells project to the hippocampus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. vol. 115 (7).
- (2017) Perirhinal firing patterns are sustained across large spatial segments of the task environment. Nature Communications. vol. 12.
- (2017) Interaction of nucleus reuniens and entorhinal cortex projections in hippocampal field CA1 of the rat. Brain Structure and Function. vol. 222 (5).
- (2017) Parahippocampal and retrosplenial connections of rat posterior parietal cortex. Hippocampus. vol. 27 (4).
- (2017) MicroRNAs contribute to postnatal development of laminar differences and neuronal subtypes in the rat medial entorhinal cortex. Brain Structure and Function. vol. 222 (7).
- (2017) Architecture of the entorhinal cortex A review of entorhinal anatomy in rodents with some comparative notes. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. vol. 11.
- (2017) Comparative Contemplations on the Hippocampus. Brain, Behavior and Evolution. vol. 90 (1).
- (2016) Carbamazepine modulates the spatiotemporal activity in the dentate gyrus of rats and pharmacoresistant humans in vitro. Brain and Behavior. vol. 6.
- (2016) Postsynaptic targets of inputs to the lateral entorhinal cortex. SFN Abstract Viewer/Itinerary Planner. vol. 183 (16).
- (2016) Hippocampus at 25. Hippocampus. vol. 26 (10).
- (2016) Physiological properties of neurons in bat entorhinal cortex exhibit an inverse gradient along the dorsal–Ventral axis compared to entorhinal neurons in rat. Journal of Neuroscience. vol. 36 (16).
- (2016) Reelin-immunoreactive neurons in entorhinal cortex layer II selectively express intracellular amyloid in early Alzheimer's disease. Neurobiology of Disease. vol. 93.
- (2016) Posterior parietal cortex of the rat: Architectural delineation and thalamic differentiation. Journal of Comparative Neurology. vol. 524 (18).
- (2016) Postnatal development of retrosplenial projections to the parahippocampal region of the rat. eLIFE. vol. 5 (2016).
- (2015) A three-plane architectonic atlas of the rat hippocampal region. Hippocampus. vol. 25 (7).