Dr Guifen Chen
Senior Lecturer in Neurobiology
EDI co-Lead at SBBS
School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London
Research
Spatial navigation, Virtual reality, Sensory integration
Interests
The ability to navigate is an essential skill required by both humans and animals. Animals can use sensory cues across modalities, such as visual, auditory, olfactory, integrated with self-motion cues, to find their way home from a food searching journey. Neural activity in the hippocampus and adjacent cortical areas, has been shown to correlate with the physical location of an organism. However, it is not clear how an internal unified representation of space, which supports navigation, is generated by integrating sensory inputs across modalities.Virtual reality offers a powerful tool for investigating spatial cognition, allowing environmental manipulations that are impossible in the real world. Two-dimensional immersive virtual reality allows a close approximation of spatial representation in the real world. Hence, my laboratory is studying the across-modal navigation in virtual environments, combining virtual reality techniques with in vivo electrophysiological recording (tetrode and Neuropixels probe recordings) and 2-photon imaging.
Publications
Publications of specific relevance to the Centre for Brain and Behaviour2024
Yang X, Cacucci F, Burgess N, Wills TJ and Chen G (2024). Visual boundary cues suffice to anchor place and grid cells in virtual reality. Current Biology, Elsevier vol. 34 (10), 2256-2264.e3. 01-05-2024
2020
Whittington JCR, Muller TH, Mark S, Chen G, Barry C, Burgess N and Behrens TEJ (2020). The Tolman-Eichenbaum Machine: Unifying Space and Relational Memory through Generalization in the Hippocampal Formation. Cell, Elsevier (Cell Press) vol. 183 (5), 1249-1263.e23. 25-11-2020
2019
Chen G, Lu Y, King JA, Cacucci F and Burgess N (2019). Differential influences of environment and self-motion on place and grid cell firing. Nature Communications, Nature Research (part of Springer Nature) vol. 10 (1) 07-02-2019
2018
Chen G, King JA, Lu Y, Cacucci F and Burgess N (2018). Spatial cell firing during virtual navigation of open arenas by head-restrained mice. eLife, eLife Sciences Publications Ltd vol. 7 18-06-2018
2017
Li S, Xu J, Chen G, Lin L, Zhou D and Cai D (2017). The characterization of hippocampal theta-driving neurons — a time-delayed mutual information approach. Scientific Reports, Springer Nature vol. 7 (1) 17-07-2017
2016
Chen G, Manson D, Cacucci F and Wills TJ (2016). Absence of Visual Input Results in the Disruption of Grid Cell Firing in the Mouse. Current Biology, Elsevier (Cell Press) vol. 26 (17), 2335-2342. 12-09-2016
Zhang L, Ma X, Chen G, Barkai E and Lin L (2016). Theta Rhythmic Clock-Like Activity of Single Units in the Mouse Hippocampus. Journal of Neuroscience, Society for Neuroscience vol. 36 (16), 4415-4420. 20-04-2016
2013
Zhang H, Chen G, Kuang H and Tsien JZ (2013). Mapping and Deciphering Neural Codes of NMDA Receptor-Dependent Fear Memory Engrams in the Hippocampus. PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS) vol. 8 (11) 26-11-2013
Tsien JZ, Li M, Osan R, Chen G, Lin L, Wang PL, Frey S, Frey J, Zhu D, Liu T, Zhao F and Kuang H (2013). On brain activity mapping: insights and lessons from Brain Decoding Project to map memory patterns in the hippocampus. Science China Life Sciences, Springer Nature vol. 56 (9), 767-779. 30-07-2013
Tsien JZ, Li M, Osan R, Chen G, Lin L, Wang PL, Frey S, Frey J, Zhu D, Liu T, Zhao F and Kuang H (2013). On initial Brain Activity Mapping of episodic and semantic memory code in the hippocampus. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Elsevier vol. 105, 200-210. 06-07-2013
2012
Chen G, King JA, Burgess N and O'Keefe J (2012). How vision and movement combine in the hippocampal place code. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences vol. 110 (1), 378-383. 19-12-2012
Zhang L, Chen G, Niu R, Wei W, Ma X, Xu J, Wang J, Wang Z and Lin L (2012). Hippocampal theta‐driving cells revealed by Granger causality. Hippocampus, Wiley vol. 22 (8), 1781-1793. 14-03-2012
2011
Oşan R, Chen G, Feng R and Tsien JZ (2011). Differential Consolidation and Pattern Reverberations within Episodic Cell Assemblies in the Mouse Hippocampus. PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS) vol. 6 (2) 15-02-2011
2009
Chen G, Wang LP and Tsien JZ (2009). Neural Population-Level Memory Traces in the Mouse Hippocampus. PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS) vol. 4 (12) 16-12-2009
2007
Lin L, Chen G, Kuang H, Wang D and Tsien JZ (2007). Neural encoding of the concept of nest in the mouse brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences vol. 104 (14), 6066-6071. 03-04-2007
2006
Lin L, Chen G, Xie K, Zaia KA, Zhang S and Tsien JZ (2006). Large-scale neural ensemble recording in the brains of freely behaving mice. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, Elsevier vol. 155 (1), 28-38. 22-03-2006
2003
Jiang C, Chen G, Zeng X, Ouyang K and Hu Y (2003). Generation of a bioactive neuropeptide in a cell-free system. Analytical Biochemistry, Elsevier vol. 316 (1), 34-40. 01-05-2003
Grants
Grants of specific relevance to the Centre for Brain and BehaviourInternational Exchanges 2023: Brain-wide circuits for spatial computation in ZebrafishGuifen Chen
£12,000 Royal Society (31-03-2024 - 30-03-2026)
Neuronal Basis of Cross-modal sensory integration for navigationGuifen Chen
£19,906 Royal Society (21-03-2022 - 30-04-2025)
Building spatial maps from visual and self-motion inputsGuifen Chen
£492,794 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (01-02-2022 - 26-07-2027)