neural representations for planning and decision making

  • Ventral Striatal Dopamine Increases following Hippocampal Sharp-Wave Ripples
  • MA Janssen, HT Chen, NX Tritsch, MA van der Meer (2025) bioRxiv.
  • Awake replay: off the clock but on the job
  • MAA van der Meer, D Bendor (2025) Trends in Neurosciences.
  • Paradoxical replay can protect contextual task representations from destructive interference when experience is unbalanced
  • HT Chen, MAA van der Meer (2024) bioRxiv.
  • Temporal context and latent state inference in the hippocampal splitter signal
  • Duvelle E, Grieves RM, van der Meer MA (2023) eLife 12:e82357.
  • Context coding in the mouse nucleus accumbens modulates motivationally relevant information.
  • Gmaz JM, van der Meer MA (2022) PLoS Biology 20(4):e3001338.
  • Between-subject prediction reveals a shared representational geometry in the rodent hippocampus.
  • Chen H, Manning JR, van der Meer MA (2021) Current Biology 31(19):4293-4304.
  • Featured in a Dispatch by Stella & Treves, "Hyper-alignment: Great mice think alike", Current Biology 31(19): 1138-R1140
  • The next wave of replay: progress and issues in second-order analyses of hippocampal sequences.
  • van der Meer MA, Kemere C, Diba K (2020) Proceedings of the Royal Society B 375:20190238.
  • Complementary Control over Habits and Behavioral Vigor by Phasic Activity in the Dorsolateral Striatum.
  • Crego AC, Carmichael JE, van der Meer MA, Smith KS (2020) Journal of Neuroscience 40(10):2139-2153.
  • Reward revaluation biases hippocampal sequence content away from the preferred outcome
  • Carey AA, Tanaka Y, van der Meer MA (2019) Nature Neuroscience 22, 1450-1459 (pdf)
  • Persistent coding of outcome-predictive cue features in the rat nucleus accumbens
  • Gmaz JM, Carmichael JE, van der Meer MA (2018) eLife 2018;7:e37275 (pdf)
  • Internally generated hippocampal sequences as a vantage point to probe future-oriented cognition
  • Pezzulo G, Kemere C, van der Meer MA (2017) Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. (pdf)
  • Optimizing for generalization in the decoding of internally generated activity in the hippocampus.
  • van der Meer MA, Carey AA, Tanaka Y (2017) Hippocampus. (preprint, code)
  • Internally generated sequences in learning and executing goal-directed behavior.
  • Pezzulo G, van der Meer MA, Lansink CS, Pennartz CMA (2014), Trends in Cognitive Sciences 18(12): 647-657.
  • Hippocampal projections to the ventral striatum: from spatial memory to motivated behavior.
  • van der Meer MA, Ito R, Lansink CS, Pennartz CMA (2014), In: "Space, Time & Memory in the Hippocampal Formation", (Knierim JJ and Derdikman D, eds.), Springer. (pdf, code)
  • Adaptive properties of differential learning rates for positive and negative outcomes
  • Caze R, van der Meer MA (2013), Biological Cybernetics. (pdf, code)
  • A network state linking motivation and action in the nucleus accumbens
  • Catanese J, van der Meer MA (2013), Neuron 78(5), 753-54 (Preview of McGinty et al.)
  • Risk-responsive orbitofrontal neurons track acquired salience
  • Ogawa M, van der Meer MA, Esber GR, Cerri DH, Stalnaker TA, Schoenbaum G (2013), Neuron 77(2), 251-258.
  • Segmentation of spatial experience by hippocampal theta sequences
  • Gupta AS, van der Meer MA, Touretzky DS, Redish AD (2012), Nature Neuroscience 15(7), 1032-1039 (link).
  • Information processing in decision-making systems
  • van der Meer MA, Kurth-Nelson Z, Redish AD (2012), The Neuroscientist 18(4), 342-359 (link).
  • Theta phase precession beyond the hippocampus
  • Malhotra S, Cross RW, van der Meer MA (2012), Reviews in the Neurosciences 23(1):39-65 (link, raw PDF).
  • (pre-vandermeerlab)
    • Ventral striatum: a critical look at models of learning and evaluation
    • van der Meer MA, Redish AD (2011), Current Opinion in Neurobiology 21(3):387-92 (link).
    • Theta phase precession in rat ventral striatum links place and reward information
    • van der Meer MA, Redish AD (2011), Journal of Neuroscience 31(8):2843-2854 (link).
    • Triple dissociation of information processing in dorsal striatum, ventral striatum, and hippocampus on a learned spatial decision task
    • van der Meer MA, Johnson A, Schmitzer-Torbert NC, Redish AD (2010) Neuron 67(1) 25-32 (link).
    • Hippocampal replay is not a simple function of experience
    • Gupta AS, van der Meer MA, Touretzky DS, Redish AD (2010) Neuron 65(5), 695-705 (link)
    • See also the accompanying Spotlight Preview by Derdikman and Moser
    • Expectancies in decision making, reinforcement learning, and ventral striatum
    • van der Meer MA, Redish AD (2010) Frontiers in Neuroscience Focused Review, doi:10.3389/neuro.01.006.2010 (link)
    • Covert expectation-of-reward in rat ventral striatum at decision points
    • van der Meer MA, Redish AD (2009a) Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 3:1, doi:10.3389/neuro.07.001.2009 (link)
    • Selected for a Focused Review in Frontiers in Neuroscience
    • Integrating hippocampus and striatum in decision-making
    • Johnson A, van der Meer MA, Redish AD (2007) Current Opinion in Neurobiology 17(6):692-7 (link)

    Oscillations in limbic circuits

    • Optogenetic mapping of rhythmic phase-dependent excitability in the mouse striatum
    • M Mohapatra, JE Carmichael, KS Smith, MAA van der Meer (2025) Journal of Neuroscience
    • Piriform cortex provides a dominant gamma LFP oscillation in the anterior limbic system
    • Carmichael JE, Yuen MM, van der Meer MA (2020) bioRxiv
    • A comprehensive characterization of rhythmic spiking activity in the rat ventral striatum
    • van der Meer MA, Gmaz J, Carmichael JE (2019) bioRxiv (link)
    • Gamma oscillations in the rat ventral striatum originate in the piriform cortex
    • Carmichael JE, Gmaz J, van der Meer MA (2017) Journal of Neuroscience (link, preprint pdf, code)
    • Low and high gamma oscillations deviate in opposite directions from zero-phase synchrony in the limbic corticostriatal loop
    • Catanese J, Carmichael JE, van der Meer MA (2016) Journal of Neurophysiology (link, preprint pdf, code)
    • Ventral striatal gamma oscillations are highly variable from trial to trial, dominated by behavioral state, and only weakly influenced by outcome value.
    • Malhotra S, Cross RW, Zhang A, van der Meer MA (2015) European Journal of Neuroscience (link, preprint pdf, code)
    • Integrating early results on ventral striatal gamma oscillations in the rat
    • van der Meer MA, Kalenscher T, Lansink CS, Pennartz CM, Berke JD, Redish AD (2010) Frontiers in Neuroscience Focused Review. (link)
    • Low and high gamma oscillations in rat ventral striatum have distinct relationships to behavior, reward, and spike coherence on a learned spatial decision task
    • van der Meer MA, Redish AD (2009b) Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 3:9, doi:10.3389/neuro.07.009.2009 (link)
    • Selected for a Focused Review in Frontiers in Neuroscience

    head direction cells and behavior

    • The Head-Direction Signal Plays a Functional Role as a Neural Compass during Navigation
    • Butler WN, Smith KS, van der Meer MA, Taube JS (2017) Current Biology 27(9):1259-1267 (link, code)
    • Evidence for the use of an internal sense of direction in homing
    • van der Meer MAA, Richmond Z, Braga RM, Wood ER, Dudchenko PA (2010) Behavioral Neuroscience 124(1):164-69 (link, SOM)
    • Anticipation in the rodent head direction cell system can be explained by an interaction of head movements and vestibular firing properties
    • van der Meer MA, Knierim JJ, Doreswamy Y, Wood ER, van Rossum MC (2007) J Neurophysiol 98(4):1883-97 (link)
    • Interpreting lesion effects on head direction anticipation [Electronic response to Clark et al. "Head Direction Cell Instability in the Anterior Dorsal Thalamus after Lesions of the Interpeduncular Nucleus"]
    • van der Meer MA (2009) Journal of Neuroscience, doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2811-08.2009

    selected other stuff

    • Learning to plan: planning as an action in simple reinforcement learning agents
    • Wimmer GE, van der Meer MA (2010) Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, Conference Abstract: Computational and systems neuroscience (CoSyNe) 2010. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.03.00246 (Student project at the Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Course (OCNC) 2009)
    • Adaptive properties of differential learning rates for positive and negative outcomes
    • Caze R, van der Meer MA (2010) Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, Conference Abstract: Computational and systems neuroscience (CoSyNe) 2010. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.03.00166 (Student project at the Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Course (OCNC) 2009)
    • Corticostriatal interactions during learning, memory processing and decision-making
    • Pennartz CM, Berke JD, Graybiel AM, Ito R, Lansink CS, van der Meer M, Redish AD, Smith K, Voorn P (2009) Journal of Neuroscience 29: 12831-12838 (link)
    • Adaptive integration in the visual cortex by depressing recurrent cortical circuits
    • van Rossum MC, van der Meer MA, Xiao D, Oram MW (2008) Neural Computation 20(7):1847-72 (link)
    • Exploring the role of context-dependent hippocampal activity in spatial alternation behavior
    • Ainge JA, van der Meer MA, Langston RF<, Wood ER (2007) Hippocampus 17(10):988-1002 (link)

    not neuroscience

    • Subject-Object Assymmetry in Child Comprehension of WH-Questions
    • Philip WC, Coopmans PH, van Atteveldt WH, van der Meer MA (2001) In Do AL, Johansen A, Dominguez L (Eds.) Proceedings of the 25th Boston University Conference on Language Development pp. 587-598. Cascadilla Press: Cambridge, MA