Project Summary My long-term goal is to become a successfully funded, independent neurobiologist, conducting research aimed at improving our understanding of learning and memory. This goal will be accomplished by the implementation of a highly coordinated, thorough, and integrated career development plan including components of mentored guidance and training, an adept research environment, and a complementary research project. First, a career development plan comprised of a mentor, and co mentors, courses and conferences has been established to provide the applicant with the skills and guidance to transition into a position of independence. The mentor, Dr. Diego Restrepo, is a successfully funded researcher and leading expert in neuroscience and the co-mentor, Dr. Jamie Peters, is a recognized leader in neural circuits controlling learned behaviors, primarily those controlling drug seeking and fear in which the prefrontal cortex plays an essential role. They are well suited to oversee my training. The mentoring team will provide critical guidance and feedback on aspects of career development and technical components high density electrode recording with Neuropixels, data analysis, and olfactory behavior tasks. The mentoring committee includes members at different levels of their career ranging from young to senior faculty who will specifically assist the applicant in components directly related to career transition. In addition, courses in MATLAB, python and conferences on neuroscience are included to facilitate these components of the training program. Second, an adept research environment – the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado, along with associated resources, core facilities, and faculty members not directly involved in the applicant’s advisory committee – is established to provide assurance of the applicant’s success. Third, a research project has been proposed to facilitate my training in exciting new areas essential for my path to independence while simultaneously maintaining the key goals of studying neuronal signaling networks as related to learning and memory. The research tests the important hypothesis that altering local and long-range interneuron coupling and CaMKIIα-mediated plasticity mediate changes in PAC that result in an increase in odor elicited change in high gamma phase reference power and an increase in accuracy for decoding odorant identity during learning in the go-no go task. Aim 1 will evaluate Closed loop optogenetic stimulation of local PV or SST interneurons or long-range interneurons targeting hippocampus or mPFC in the peak or through of theta will cause coherence of oscillatory coupling causing the mice to increase decoding accuracy. Aim 2 will evaluate transient disruption of CaMKIIα expression in local SST interneurons or long-range interneurons targeting mPFC causes a change in the transmission of information from the CA1 to mPFC disrupting the ability of these mice to l...