Dear All,
The RTG 2906 „Curiosity“ invites to a Guest Talk: „From Brain Circuits to Behaviour: Mechanisms of Curiosity and Memory„. The talk is delivered by our Mercator Fellow, Matthias Gruber from the Cardiff University. Scheduled for June 23rd, 12:15 pm to 1:30 pm in Verfügungsgebäude, room 1.103.
What is the lecture about?
Curiosity is widely assumed to enhance learning and memory, yet the mechanisms through which it translates into lasting knowledge remain poorly understood, and it is unclear whether its benefits arise directly or via the processes it recruits. In particular, it is unclear how interactions between hippocampal–midbrain circuitry, behavioural engagement (e.g., exploration), and development shape curiosity-driven learning. In this talk, I present three complementary projects that take a mechanistic, multi-level approach.
First, combining ultra-high-field 7T fMRI with a trivia-based paradigm, we examine the fine-grained hippocampal–dopaminergic circuitry underlying curiosity in humans. We found that curiosity elicits activity in a key dopaminergic region (the ventral tegmental area) as well as in the subiculum of the hippocampal formation, a key hippocampal output region, and that interactions between the ventral tegmental area and the hippocampus predict enhanced memory.
Second, using virtual environments, we test whether curiosity enhances spatial memory directly or by driving exploration. A preregistered yoked design dissociates curiosity from the opportunity to act on it, allowing us to test how the opportunity for agency shapes curiosity-related memory benefits.
Third, I present interim findings from a preregistered fMRI study of curiosity-driven learning in late childhood and early adolescence. Using the trivia paradigm, we assess how curiosity and prediction-related signals shape memory and hippocampal–dopaminergic circuitry during encoding in 10–14-year-olds.
Together, these findings bridge circuit-level, behavioural, and developmental accounts of curiosity, suggesting that curiosity enhances learning through multiple interacting pathways linking brain, behaviour, and development.
About the speaker
Dr. Matthias Gruber is an Associate Professor and the Group Leader of the Motivation & Memory Lab at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), UK. He holds a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London, UK, and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California at Davis, USA. Dr. Gruber is currently visiting the University of Göttingen, the heartland of curiosity research, as a Mercator Fellow as part of the RTG 2906 “Curiosity”.
No registration necessary, all are welcome.
