Dr. Adrienne Kinman
Work done at University of British Columbia
Article citation
Adrienne I. Kinman, Derek N. Merryweather, Sarah R. Erwin, Regan E. Campbell, Kaitlin E. Sullivan, Larissa Kraus, Margarita Kapustina, Brianna N. Bristow, Mingjia Y. Zhang, Madeline W. Elder, Sydney C. Wood, Ali Tarik, Esther Kim, Joshua Tindall, William Daniels , Mehwish Anwer, Caiying Guo & Mark S. Cembrowski. Atypical hippocampal excitatory neurons express and govern object memory. Nature Communications 16, 1195 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56260-8
Identification of a new brain cell important for object memory
Adrienne Kinman, working in the laboratory of Dr. Mark Cembrowski at the University of British Columbia, has identified a new type of brain cells, called ovoid neurons, and showed it responds specifically to novel, but not familiar objects. Named for the egg-like shape of their cell body, ovoid neurons can be found in the subiculum of the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory. In this publication, the researchers identified and characterized this previously undescribed excitatory neuron type and showed they were molecularly, anatomically, and functionally distinct from previously identified pyramidal neurons. Using a multiscale approach combining advanced brain imaging and manipulation techniques (including 100 days of longitudinal miniscope calcium imaging, transcriptomics, circuit mapping, electrophysiology, modeling, and optogenetics) the researcher showed that ovoid neurons form a dedicated channel for object-based novelty processing. Functionally, they display remarkably large and sustained responses to novel, but not familiar, objects, maintaining their novelty-selective signatures across weeks to months.
Manipulating ovoid-cell activity demonstrated their causal contribution to object memory. Optogenetic silencing during encoding abolished object-recognition memory, while activation drove animals toward familiar-object seeking. These optogenetic manipulations were able to toggle behavioural object preference based on the state of a single excitatory cell type while, remarkably, sparing spatial memory. In contrast, neighbouring pyramidal neurons showed no such specificity and instead largely supported spatial memory encoding and retrieval.
This work helps redefine the organizational logic of hippocampal memory systems by demonstrating that excitatory circuits in the subiculum are composed of previously unrecognized, functionally specialized neuron subtypes. The identification of ovoid neurons as a genetically, anatomically, and functionally distinct class dedicated to novelty-driven object memory represents a major advance, helping overturn longstanding assumptions that pyramidal cells alone support excitatory hippocampal output. This study provides the clearest demonstration to date that non-spatial memory is routed through a discrete excitatory population, establishing strong precedent for a new cell-type-resolved framework for hippocampal computation. This framework offers a new way to understand how specific memory traces are generated, maintained, and altered across time, and provides a mechanistic bridge between molecular identity, circuit organization, and behaviour.
The paper’s scientific and public impact has been substantial. Published in Nature Communications, it ranks in the 1% of most cited papers of the same age. The discovery of ovoid neurons received wide media attention, including coverage from the CBC, Global News, and >25 international outlets spanning print, television, and radio. This level of visibility highlights the public relevance of understanding memory mechanisms and positions this work to influence how hippocampal memory systems are taught and conceptualized. Further, by illuminating a specialized cell type for object memory, this research provides a foundation for future studies on disorders involving novelty detection and recognition memory, including Alzheimer’s disease and autism spectrum disorder, and offers a new entry point for targeted interventions.
The extent of Adrienne Kinman’s work in this publication, both the breadth and complexity, was highlighted by The Globe and Mail when she was featured as one of six Emerging Leaders in Canadian Science (2025) (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-meet-canadas-next-generation-of-researchers/).
Read more on the University of British Columbia website: https://www.med.ubc.ca/news/meet-the-newly-discovered-brain-cell-that-allows-you-to-remember-objects/
About Adrienne Kinman
Adrienne conducted this work while a PhD student in the lab of Dr. Mark Cembrowski. As lead author, she conducted all calcium imaging, optogenetic, and behavioural experiments, and led the writing of the manuscript in collaboration with her co-authors.
Adrienne was awarded her PhD in 2025 and is now a post-doctoral researcher at Princeton University in Dr. Christina Kim’s lab.
Sources of funding
Canada Postgraduate Scholarship—Doctoral from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
Canada Graduate Scholarship—Master’s from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)