Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Friday, February 9, 2018 Recorded as a panel discussion following the UTSA Neurosciences Institute’s 2018 research symposium.  The group discusses the tripartite synapse concept, which was coined by two of our panelists, Phil Haydon and Alfonso Araque, in the late 1990s.  The group considers the diverse mechanisms of astrocyte-neuron communication and the magnitude of how we are beginnin...

Thursday, February 8, 2018 Marco Gallio (Northwestern) talks about temperature sensation in Drosophila as a “fruitful” model system for examining sensory encoding and propagation of representations through a relatively reduced sensorimotor system. Duration: 39 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst Prof, UTSA) Lindsey Macpherson (Asst Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res A...

Thursday, January 18, 2018 Dwight Bergles (Johns Hopkins) discusses his work characterizing a fourth mysterious class of CNS glial cells, called oligodendrocyte precursor cells. Duration: 46 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini (Professor, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: J...

Thursday, November 2, 2017 Aurelio Galli (UAB) discusses the biophysics of the dopamine transporter, its relevance to disease, and how he is leveraging drosophila to study behavioral phenotypes of dopamine transporter mutations. Duration: 35 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini (Professor, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Matt Wanat...

Thursday, October 26, 2017 Lori Knackstedt (UF Gainesville) discusses glutamate homeostasis mechanisms in the nucleus accumbens in mediating relapse to cocaine-seeking in rodent models of cue-induced extinction and abstinence. Duration: 46 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini (Professor, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Matthew Wana...

Thursday, October 19, 2017 Veronica Alvarez (NIAAA) discusses using drugs of abuse to probe D2 mechanisms in striatal circuitry and effects on behavior. Duration: 46 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst Prof, UTSA) Carlos Paladini (Professor, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Matthew Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewi...

Thursday, October 12, 2017 Ann Graybiel (MIT) discusses her work on cortical-basal ganglia loops and habit formation. Duration: 46 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst Prof, UTSA) Carlos Paladini (Professor, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Matthew Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledge...

Thursday, September 21, 2017 Dean Buonomano (UCLA) talks about strategies that neural networks might use to store information about time in the states of neural networks. Duration: 38 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Recorded as a panel discussion following the UTSA Neurosciences Institute’s 2017 research symposium on September 14, 2017.  Hosted by Salma Quraishi. Duration: 38 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Andre Fenton, Professor of Neural Science, NYU James Knierim, Professor of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins Isabel Muzzio, Associate Professor, UTSA A. David Redish, Distinguished McKnig...

Thursday, September 7, 2017 Suzanne Haber (U Rochester Med Ctr) talks about defining anatomy and structural connections in the context of function in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic system. Duration: 37 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) ac...

Thursday, August 24, 2017 Mark Shapiro (UT Health, San Antonio) talks about visualizing how the anchoring protein AKAP79/150 orchestrates functional coupling of ion channel assemblies using super-resolution microscopy. Duration: 39 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Fidel Santamaria (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknow...

Thursday, April 13, 2017 Joanna Phillips (UCSF) fields our questions about the cellular microenvironment:  how cell signaling and interactions are mediated by glycocalyx proteoglycans and components of the extracellular matrix.  The discussion touches on how these cell surface and microenvironment factors impact migration and cancer proliferation. Duration: 44 minutes Discussants : (in a...

Monday, April 10, 2017 Jim Surmeier (Northwestern University) talks to us about integrating circuit, ion channel and bioenergetic vantage points to define quantitative, neuron-specific mechanisms of pathology in Parkinson’s disease.  He guides the group through a discussion of how his hypothesis-driven approach is informing an exciting new clinical trial for slowing the progression of Parkins...

Thursday, April 6, 2017 James Tepper (Rutgers Newark) joins us 10 years down the line to revisit the topic of our inaugural podcast discussion, which centered on the diversity and origins of striatal interneurons.  A number of the original group are joined by some new faculty to consider how the field has expanded and evolved in the last decade. Duration: 43 minutes Discussants : (in alphabet...

Thursday, March 30, 2017 Alan Lerner (Case Western Reserve) offers his perspective as a clinician-scientist in understanding the scope of Brain Health as a “big science” initiative.  He describes how a broad alignment of public health, medical, clinical and basic science perspectives are informing new perspectives on the treatment and prevention of neurodegenerative diseases and dementia. Dur...

Thursday, March 23, 2017 Gemma Casadesus-Smith (Kent State) discusses new strategies in thinking about Alzheimer’s disease and its prevention, and what we understand about the disease process through clinical indicators.  The group takes on some hard questions about the approaches being used to guide clinical trials, and why some ideas appear to linger past their prime. Duration: 52 minutes D...

Nick Hollon (Fellow, Xin Jin Lab, Salk Institute) leads us in a fantastic discussion on neuroeconomic approaches to understanding the neural correlates that govern value-based decision making. Duration: 41 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Carlos Paladini (Professor, UTSA) Matt Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) Todd...

Thursday, March 2, 2017 Christiane Linster (Cornell) discusses the theory and experimental realities at play in modeling learning, memory and neuromodulation in the olfactory system of rodents. Duration: 40 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for origi...

Thursday, February 16, 2017 Bennet Ibey (Air Force Research Laboratory) discusses the biophysics of how membranes react to electric field pulses.  The discussion centers around our reference point for this phenomenom, electroporation. Duration: 48 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Fidel Santamaria (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsel...

Thursday, February 9, 2017 Peter Kalivas (Medical University of South Carolina) discusses how he is incorporating the tetrapartite synapse (pre-synapse, post-synapse, glia and extra-cellular matrix) into understanding addiction circuits and behavior. Duration: 38 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini (Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Matt Wanat (Assist Prof, UTSA)...

Thursday, February 2, 2017 Harel Shouval (UT Health, Houston) discusses building models for how time constants of neural circuits adapt to reflect the time constraints of the world.  For instance, learning requires associating cues and later rewards, yet the teaching signal (the reward) is temporally distant from the cue itself well outside the timescale of individual neurons. For reference,...

Thursday, January 26, 2017 Henry Yin (Duke) discusses a take on hierarchical movement control based on integrative approaches that marry kinematics and optogenetically controlled behavioral assays. The discussion references this review and paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27306757 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27091436 Duration: 34 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Matt...

Thursday, January 19, 2017 Leslie Whitaker (NIDA Fellow) talks about how silent synapses in neuronal ensembles might underlie associative learning in the ventral tegmental area and prefrontal cortex. Duration: 39 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Alyssa Petko (PhD student, UTSA Claire Stelly (Fellow, UTSA) Matt Wa...

Thursday, December 1, 2016 David Weinshenker (Emory U School of Med ) discusses norepinephrine physiology and it’s relevance to the neuropathology of degenerative diseases and addiction. Duration: 47 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Alyssa Petko (PhD student, UTSA Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA Matt Wanat (Asst Pr...

Thursday, November 3, 2016 Geoffrey Schoenbaum (National Institutes of Drug Abuse) discusses the advantages of using principles of learning theory in physiological investigations of associative learning and decision making.  The group reflects on the caveats of constraining behavior and losing the generality of coding Duration: 30 minutes Discussants : (in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini...