How does the brain build memory — and why does reward reshape what we remember?

In this episode, I sit down with Marielena Sosa to discuss her postdoctoral research at Stanford University, where she studied how the hippocampus encodes space, context, and reward to construct cognitive maps of experience.

Dr. Sosa is now a Principal Investigator at University of Colorado Boulder, leading a lab focused on the neural mechanisms of memory and prediction.

We explore:

– Why memory is not passive storage but active prediction

– How reward reorganizes neural representations

– The relationship between spatial coding and value

– What deteriorates in aging and Alzheimer’s disease

– Whether music and dance can engage compensatory circuits in Parkinson’s disease

This conversation moves from fundamental systems neuroscience to broader questions about neurodegeneration, plasticity, and how the brain continuously updates its internal model of the world.