Neuroscientists Talk Shop

On October 28, 2021 we met with Asohn Amarsingham.  We discussed pitfalls in the discovery of neural codes, the practice of statistics in neuroscience, the quest to minimize our assumptions, and the origin of stochasticity in neural data. Dr. Amarasingham is Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, City College of New York. https://math.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/person/asohan-amarasingha...

On September 23, 2021, UTSA neuroscientists had the opportunity to chat with Douglas Nitz, Professor and Chair of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego about neural representation of space and movement in the hippocampus, and on the origin of concepts in the brain. Dr. Nitz is Professor and Chair of the Department of Cognitive Science at the University of California San Diego https...

On September 16, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Max Fletcher (UT Memphis HSC) for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Lindsey Macpherson, and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about gustatory cortex, taste representations and decision making. Dr. Fletcher is Associate Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology at the University of Tenne...

Thursday, May 5, 2021 We sat down with Josh Goldberg to talk about how the earliest prodromal symptoms of Parkinson's manifest at a cellular and network level in the autonomic nervous system. Charlie Wilson and Salma Quraishi talked with him about identifying distinct biophysical adaptations in an adult-onset mouse model, and how these changes are sufficient to explain one of the earliest signs of...

On April 30, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Sergio Ferreira (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) to discuss Alzheimer's Disease as a pathology of proteostasis.  Hyoung-gon Lee, Chris Gamblin and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about how he is targeting protein synthesis to rescue defective synaptic plasticity and restore memory performance in a specific...

On April 15, 2021 we were joined by Kamran Diba, to talk about hippocampal sharp wave ripples, theta oscillations, sleep, behavior, memory and memory replay. Dr. Diba is Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology in the University of Michigan Medical School. https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/diba-lab/ Charles J. Wilson, Professor, Dept. of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biolog...

On April 8, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Alfredo Fontanini (Stony Brook University) to talk about gustatory insular cortex.  Charles J. Wilson, Fidel Santamaria, Lindsey Macpherson and Salma Quraishi chatted with him on the role of gustatory cortex in taste, expectation and decision making. Alfredo Fontanini MD PhD is Professor & Chair of the Departm...

On April 1, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Jill Crittenden to talk about the striosomal and matrix compartments of the striatum, differences in their connections, and differences in their behavioral function. Dr. Crittenden is Scientific Advisor to the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. participating in the discussion: Charles J. Wilson, Ewing Halsel...

On March 25, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Dr. Kay Tye of the Salk Institute for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop. Tony Burgos-Robles, Charles Wilson, Matt Wanat, and Salma Quraishi chatted with her about studying social interaction and the effects of social isolation from a neural circuit vantage point. Dr. Tye is Wylie Vale Chair and Professor at the...

On March 18, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Sachin Deshmukh to talk space, environmental complexity and information flow in the entorhinal-hippocampal network. Charles J. Wilson, Francesco Savelli and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about how spatial representations arising in lateral entorhinal cortex with increasing environmental complexity are propagate...

On February 25, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Dr. Lara Hwa for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Matt Wanat, and Salma Quraishi chatted with her about the intersection of stress and alcohol consumption in rodent models of voluntary alcohol binging. Dr. Hwa is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience...

On  February  10, 2022 we welcomed Dan Butts, to talk about studying sensory system function by statistical modeling of neuron populations in the awake state during natural or near-natural sensory stimulation. We  discuss the use of machine learning tools for data analysis and the  interaction between theories of natural perception and of deep neural  networks Dr. Butts is...

On February 4 , 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Zane Lybrand for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Jenny Hsieh, Chris Navara, and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about new work describing aberrant migration of adult born granule cells following pilocarpine insult, and its contribution to generation of spontaneous seizure. Zane Lybrand PhD is Assista...

On January 28, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with our own Francesco Savelli for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Isabel Muzzio, and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about spatial reference frames and computation in the hippocampal network. Dr. Savelli is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and member of the UTSA Neurosci...

On December 3, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Brian Wiltgen for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Isabel Muzzio, Anthony Burgos-Robles and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about mapping mechanisms of memory consolidation and retrieval in hippocampus and cortex. Dr. Wiltgen is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology &am...

On November 19, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Tad Blair for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Francesco Savelli, Todd Troyer and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about mapping brain states on behavior. Dr. Blair is Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology & a member of the Brain Research Institute...

On October 29, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with UCSF Neurosurgeon Philip Starr for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Matt Higgs and Salma Quraishi chatted with Dr. Starr about state-of-the-art closed loop brain stimulation therapies in humans and pathological oscillations in the basal ganglia network. Philip Starr MD PhD is Profess...

On October 22, 2020 the UTSA gang sat down with Nicola Grissom (UMN) for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop. Charles J. Wilson, Matt Wanat, Lindsey Macpherson & Salma Quraishi chatted with her about the impact of sex on executive function & how genetic factors interact with sex in autism. Nicola Grissom PhD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and part of the NeuroPR...

On October 15, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Eliza Bliss-Moreau (UC Davis) for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Melanie Carless, Todd Troyer and Salma Quraishi chatted with her about frameworks for affective neuroscience and how she is using multi species approaches to decompose affect into tractable biological features, i.e.,...

On October 8, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Michael Hasselmo for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Isabel Muzzio, Francesco Savelli and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about how models have guided the search for neural correlates of episodic memory, from grid cells, to time representations to egocentric boundary cells. Dr. Hasse...

Friday, April 24, 2020 Jacques Wadiche (UAB School of Medicine) talks to us about multivesicular neurotransmitter release (MVR) in the CNS. He takes us through recent work from his lab that gets at PKA-dependent molecular regulation of MVR whereby synaptic release depends on the number of docked vesicles available for release upstream of release probability. Duration: 51 minutes Discussants : (in...

Thursday, February 20, 2020 Tim Petros (NICHD/NIH) talks about new single cell RNA and epigenetic approaches to understanding the intrinsic programs that determine interneuron diversity. The group discusses how to determine causation vs correlation in identifying candidate mechanisms that regulate interneuron fate decisions, and how historic concepts of cell type (based on morphology, connectivity...

Thursday, February 13, 2020 Savio Chan (Northwestern) gives us his thoughts on cell diversity in the external globus pallidus. He weighs in on how to define cell type, when to stop mining for more diversity, and whether cell type may even be a relevant construct in thinking about a network’s function. In an interesting aside, Charlie bears out how Savio’s work delivers the key functional impact of...

Thursday, February 6, 2020 Steve Small (UT Dallas) discusses how well 19th and 20th century localizationist metaphors for the brain have served our understanding of behavior, especially in the realm of language, and what new strategies are replacing them in the new millennium. Duration: 46 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Prof, UTSA) Charle...

Thursday, January 23, 2020 Matt van der Meer (Dartmouth) talks about the role of oscillations in routing information flow in the ventral striatum. Duration: 37 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Francesco Savelli (Assistant Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.