Neuroscientists Talk Shop

On April 27, we met with Kara Federmeier to talk about brain mechanisms of human semantic processing. We discussed the role of meaning in human language comprehension and production, in comparison to that of large language models like ChatGPT, which presumably do not know what they are saying. Guest: Kara Federmeier, Professor, Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience and The Beckman Inst...

On April 13, 2023 we met with Steve Chang to learn about brain mechanisms for social decision making - deciding to share or not to share, acting on another's behalf, and learning by watching what others do. Guest: Steve Chang, Associate Professor of the Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience at Yale University. Participating: Tony Burgos-Robles, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental an...

On March 29, 2023 we spoke with Jayeeta Basu about the level of autonomy exercised by neuronal dendrites in synaptic integration, the factors that control coupling between dendrites and the soma, and the possible role of dendritic processing in generating the responses of neurons. Guest: Jayeeta Basu, Assistant Professor, Neuroscience Institute, the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, and t...

On March 9, 2023 we spoke with Lauren Dobbs about the relationship between dopamine receptors and opiate peptide co-transmitters in the striatum, and implications for the mechanisms of action of cocaine and opiate drugs. Guest: Lauren Dobbs, Assistant Professor, Departments of Neuroscience and Neurology, University of Texas at Austin. Participating: Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience, Developm...

On March 2nd, 2023 we got a chance to talk to Carmen Canavier, from LSU Health in New Orleans. This is Carmen's second time on the podcast.  Her previous visit was in 2015 (Episode 127), and she talked to us about the dynamics of dopamine neurons.  This time she shared her insights on theta and gamma oscillations and spike timing in the entorhinal cortex.  Guest: Carmen Canavier, Pr...

On February 23, 2023 we spoke with Zoé McElligott about alcohol, the difficulties encountered trying to understand its effects on the brain and the origins of alcohol use disorder. Guest: Zoé McElligott, Bowles Center of Alcohol Studies Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology, UNC Chapel Hill Participating: Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA Hos...

On February 16, 2023 we got a chance to chat with Rakez Kayed on the tau protein, the key constituent in neurofibrillary tangles that are seen in the brain in Alzheimer's disease, and present in many other kinds of neurodegeneration.  He answered our questions about what tau protein is, how it is changed in neurodegenerative diseases, and what might be done about it. Guest:   Rakez Kayed...

On December 1, 2022, we got the opportunity to talk to Shannon Macauley about the multiplicity of causes and effects in the etiology of Alzheimers Disease, and her experimental work on the contributions of sleep patterns, age, blood and brain glucose and lactate, and insulin.  Guest: Shannon Macauley, Associate Professor in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, and the Sticht Center...

On November 17, 2022 we talked with Susan Sangha about brain mechanisms of learned fear and safety, and the neural circuits in the amygdala, cerebral cortex and hippocampus that evaluate threat and mediate our responses to it. Guest: Susan Sangha, Department of Psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Stark Neuroscience Research Institute. Participating: Anthony Burgos-Robles, Depa...

On November 3rd, 2022 we talked with Harold Zakon about the cells that enable weakly electric fish to generate electric fields around themselves and to use them as a sensory and social communication system.  Harold described the remarkable independent evolution of this capability twice, in the African and in the South American electric fish, and the host of coordinated genetic changes that we...

On October 27, 2022 we got the opportunity to talk to Michael Scofield about methods used to study the structure and synaptic function of astrocytes, and some of the advances that have resulted from their use, especially for glutamatergic synapses in the cerebral cortex. Guest:  Michael Scofield, Departments  of Neuroscience and Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at Medical University...

On Thursday, October 20, we held our 13th annual Neuroscience Symposium.  The topic was organoid models of cortical development.  Brain organoids are 3-dimensional tissues grown from pluripotent stem cells. For studying cortical development, the stem cells are cultured under conditions that promote differentiation into cerebral cortex neurons.  The participants in the symposium spok...

On October 13, 2022 we sat down to chat with Mel B. Feany about the molecular processes underlying the neuropathology of alpha-synuclein and Parkinson's disease. We focused on her findings implicating the actin cytoskeleton as an intermediary in mitochondrial dysfunction and other cellular mechanisms that contribute to pathology and cell death. Guest:  Mel B Feany, Department of Pathology, Di...

On Thursday, October 6, 2022 we got the opportunity to talk to Nicolas Tritsch about his studies of oscillatory fluctuations in dopamine and acetylcholine measured simultaneously in the striatum during behavior. We started from the technical side of this new experimental technology, but the conversation ranged into the implications of these oscillations for striatal function and learning, and for...

On Thursday, September 8, 2022 we were joined by Genaro Coria-Avila, to talk about sexually dimorphic nuclei in the brain, other forms of brain sexual dimorphism, and their relation to sexual behavior. Guest: Dr. Genaro Coria-Avila, Genaro is a research scientist at the Brain Research Institute at the Universidad Veracruzana  in Xalapa, Mexico. Participating: Fidel Santamaria, Department of N...

August 25, 2022 Andrew Maurer joined us to talk about the language used by hippocampal neurons to communicate with each other and with other cells in the brain.  The conversation started by referring to last month’s retrospective of the John Lisman podcast from long ago, but ranged over a number of other topics, including the future prospects for understanding brain dynamics from electrophysi...

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 On Thursday March  6, 2008 we recorded episode 9 of Neuroscientists talk Shop.  Our guess was John Lisman, from Brandeis University. We enjoyed a 50 minute discussion with John that touched on a range of topics. This  retrospective summary of that conversation has been heavily edited for linearity, and the topics have been thinned out somewhat.&nbs...

Monday, June 13, 2022 On Thursday  November 15, 2007 we recorded episode 3 of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.   Our guest was William Ross, who was, and still is, Professor in the  Department of Physiology at New York Medical College, Valhalla.  We  talked to Bill about imaging techniques for neurophysiology, especially  calcium imaging, which he helped to found and d...

Thursday, April 28, 2022 On April 28, 2020  we met with Hojoon Lee to discuss taste receptors, their constant  turnover, and the need for the taste system to constantly recreate the  specificity of connections between taste receptors and the brain. This is our last episode for the Spring.  We’ll be back in August. Guest:  Hojoon Lee, Department of Neurobiology, Northwester...

Monday, April 25, 2022 We got the opportunity to chat with Eric Olson, on gene editing with CRISPR  and its application to genetic disease.  Eric explained the alternative forms of CRISPR and their applications, as well as his own experience designing a gene editing treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Guest:  Eric Olson, Professor and Chair of Molecular Biology...

April 21, 2022 We welcomed Heidi Meyer, to discuss the development affective learning and the brain, particularly during adolescence. Guest: Heidi Meyer, Assistant  Professor in the Psychological And Brain Sciences Department and the  Center for Systems Neuroscience at Boston University. https://www.meyerlabneuro.com/heidithmeyer Participating: Tony Burgos-Robles, Department of Neur...

Thursday, April 14, 2022 We spoke with Consuelo (Chello) Walass-Bass about genetics and epigenetics of psychiatric disorders. Guest: Consuelo Walss-Bass,  Professor and John S. Dunn Foundation Distinguished Chair, Department of  Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UTHealth Houston McGovern Medical  School. https://med.uth.edu/psychiatry/faculty/consuelo-walss-bass-phd/ Participati...

Thursday, April 7, 2022  We talked with Marco Pagani about the search for the relationship between genetics, brain function, and behavioral phenotype in human autism and in animal models of autism. Marco Pagani, PhD, is a Marie Curie Global Research Fellow at the Autism Center of the Child Mind  Institute and at the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory of Istituto Italiano di Tecnolog...

Thursday, March 31, 2022 We talked to Aryn Gittis about globus pallidus cell types and circuits, and the idea of selective stimulation to improve the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease. Dr. Gittis is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. https://labs.bio.cmu.edu/gittis/ Participating: Matt Wanat, Department of Neuroscience,...

Thursday, March 24, 2022 On March 24, 2022  we had the opportunity to chat with Tom Finger about taste receptors,  ATP-mediated synaptic transmission, and the various chemosensory systems across phylogeny. Dr. Finger is Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. https://medschool.cuanschutz.edu/cell-and-developmental-biology/faculty...