Susumu Tonegawa

About

Susumu Tonegawa is the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at MIT and serves as the Director of the RIKEN-MIT Laboratory for Neural Circuit Genetics. His research investigates the biological underpinnings of learning and memory in rodents. His laboratory generates genetically engineered mice and analyzes them through multiple methods, including molecular and cellular biology, electrophysiology, microscopic imaging, optogenetic engineering, and behavioral studies. The ultimate goal of his work is to detect the effects of manipulations at multiple levels in the brain, thereby deducing which behaviors or cognitions are causally linked to specific processes and events taking place at the molecular, cellular, and neuronal circuit levels.

Research topics

• Biology
• Neuroscience
• Molecular biology
• Cell biology
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Memory engrams: Recalling the past and imagining the future

  Science · 2020-01-02 · 1105 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  In 1904, Richard Semon introduced the term "engram" to describe the neural substrate for storing memories. An experience, Semon proposed, activates a subset of cells that undergo off-line, persistent chemical and/or physical changes to become an engram. Subsequent reactivation of this engram induces memory retrieval. Although Semon's contributions were largely ignored in his lifetime, new technologies that allow researchers to image and manipulate the brain at the level of individual neurons has…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Amygdala Reward Neurons Form and Store Fear Extinction Memory

  Neuron · 2020-01-14 · 244 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Brain-wide mapping reveals that engrams for a single memory are distributed across multiple brain regions

  Nature Communications · 2022-04-04 · 217 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Neuronal ensembles that hold specific memory (memory engrams) have been identified in the hippocampus, amygdala, or cortex. However, it has been hypothesized that engrams of a specific memory are distributed among multiple brain regions that are functionally connected, referred to as a unified engram complex. Here, we report a partial map of the engram complex for contextual fear conditioning memory by characterizing encoding activated neuronal ensembles in 247 regions using tissue phen…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hippocampal neurons represent events as transferable units of experience

  Nature Neuroscience · 2020-04-06 · 144 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reinforcement biases subsequent perceptual decisions when confidence is low, a widespread behavioral phenomenon

  eLife · 2020-04-14 · 125 citations

  articleOpen access

  Learning from successes and failures often improves the quality of subsequent decisions. Past outcomes, however, should not influence purely perceptual decisions after task acquisition is complete since these are designed so that only sensory evidence determines the correct choice. Yet, numerous studies report that outcomes can bias perceptual decisions, causing spurious changes in choice behavior without improving accuracy. Here we show that the effects of reward on perceptual decisions are pri…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R37AI017879

  NIH · $2.7M · 1996

• NIH Grant R01AI017879

  NIH · $277k · 1986

• NIH Grant R01MH078821

  NIH · $2.6M · 2011

Frequent coauthors

• Shigeyoshi Itohara

  RIKEN Center for Brain Science

  332 shared

• Peter Mombaerts

  Max Planck Research Unit for Neurogenetics

  323 shared

• Marc Bonneville

  Institut Mérieux (France)

  317 shared

• Juan J. Lafaille

  New York University

  283 shared

• Luc Van Kaer

  275 shared

• I. Ishida

  271 shared

• Yohtaroh Takagaki

  University of Washington

  261 shared

• Osami Kanagawa

  École Normale Supérieure de Lyon

  238 shared

Labs

• MIT Department of Biology - Susumu Tonegawa LabPI

Awards & honors

• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1987)
• Albert and Mary Lasker Award in Basic Research (1987)
• Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1986)

Similar researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Rudolf Jaenischh-295
• Robert A. Weinbergh-291
• Phillip A. Sharph-227