Professor Miriam Nokia is fascinated by the neural basis of memory
Professor Miriam Nokia, who started as a professor in April, received her PhD from the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ in 2009, after which she has been a researcher and later an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology since January 2022. He also holds a title of docent in behavioural neuroscience at the University of Turku (2014).
Throughout her research career Nokia has been particularly interested in the function of the hippocampus during learning. Her research has focused on the formation of memories and their storage in the brain.
"I am particularly interested in the hippocampus because it is an important brain structure for the formation and storage of so-called episodic memories, especially of life events," says Nokia.
The research team led by Nokia is interested in the neural basis of learning and memory. In particular, the team is investigating the role of the hippocampus in organising memory and the links between body rhythms such as breathing and heart rate and learning. Research is carried out using a variety of methods, integrating information from the cellular level to the behavioural level.
As a researcher, I wonder how near-real-time information about body rhythms such as breathing and heart rate can be used to help regulate learning.
"To find this out, we are investigating how body and brain rhythms relate to each other and how we can influence behavioural change by monitoring these rhythms and using them in experimental settings," says Nokia.
Nokia is currently leading a study funded by the Academy of Finland to identify which brain-wide neural networks are responsible for memory recall during sleep. The aim is to increase our understanding of the role of the cerebellum in particular in consolidating memory traces and to see whether regulating the autonomic nervous system can improve memory.
Nokia's research has been published in top journals and she has received several awards for her research. He is a member of the board of the Finnish Brain Research Society and represents it in the Finnish Brain Association.
