University of California-Riverside · BiologySanthakumar Lab
Vijayalakshmi Santhakumar · Riverside, California
Research Focus
Dr. Vijayalakshmi Santhakumar's research lab at UC Riverside focuses on understanding the dentate gyrus region of the brain, which plays a crucial role in memory processing. Their work investigates how certain types of inhibitory neurons affect memory functions, especially in the context of neurological disorders like temporal lobe epilepsy. By exploring alterations in circuit mechanisms caused by epilepsy, the lab aims to uncover insights that could inform treatments for cognitive deficits, contributing to our understanding of memory decline in aging and diseases like Alzheimer's.
temporal lobe epilepsydentate gyrusmemory processinginhibitory neuronsneurological disorderselectrophysiologyoptogeneticscognitive functionneuropsychiatric comorbiditiesaging
Research Aims
4AIM 01Develop an understanding of how inhibitory neuron subtypes are recruited during memory processing.
AIM 02Determine the role of different types of inhibition in transforming input streams in epilepsy.
AIM 03Examine how inhibitory neuron function affects behavioral discrimination tasks in memory.
AIM 04Investigate structural and functional plasticity of dentate interneurons in epilepsy.
Skills the Lab Values
electrophysiologyoptogeneticsmouse modelsimmunohistochemistrybehavioral assaysdata analysismulti-site recordingsstructural imagingcircuit analysisneuroscience experimental techniques
Output against the department
Publications92bottom 31% of dept.714th of 1,033
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations2.9kbottom 22% of dept.806th of 1,033
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.