Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Thursday, October 27, 2016 Art Riegel (Medical University of South Carolina) talks with the group about competing ideas of a dopamine neuron archetype and our deepening sense of the heterogeneity of dopamine neurons.  He discusses how he is examining the mechanisms and transducers of stress on the dopamine system.  Duration: 30 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini...

Yoland Smith (Yerkes Primate Center, Emory University) discusses how the motor symptoms of Parkinsonism may not connect with our emerging  understanding of the the complex interconnectivity of the basal ganglia  thalamo-cortical loop.  The group discuss anatomical details of the  circuit in rodent and primate, and consider other possible network components that might generate t...

Thursday, September 22, 2016 Susan Patterson (Temple University) introduces neuro-immune interactions in the CNS, and discusses her ideas about how immune dysregulation and cognitive vulnerability may collide in the aging brain. Duration: 37 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Isabel Muzzio (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA)...

Tuesday, September 20, 2016 Howard Eichenbaum (Boston University) discusses “memory fields” in hippocampus as a way to think about the fundamental associative properties of the hippocampus.  He introduces place cells, and discusses the discovery that these cells code for time as well as space, as well as other  dimensions. Duration: 35 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Alfonso...

Thursday, August 25, 2016 Jim Lechleiter (Cellular & Structural Biology, UTHSCSA) gets us up to speed on astrocytes, their role in brain health and homeostasis, and their properties as excitable cells. Duration: 50 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Michael Beckstead (Assoc. Prof, UTHSCSA) Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Matt Wanat (Asst Prof,...

Thursday, April 14, 2016 Laura Colgin (Center for Learning and Memory, UT Austin) returns to discuss hippocampal gamma band oscillations and their functional importance to memory encoding and retrieval. Duration: 37 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Brian Derrick (Prof, UTSA) Isabel Muzzio (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA...

Thursday, April 7, 2016 Lee Goldstein (Boston University) discusses chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and how he is using mouse models to trace the salient features of the initiation and early neurogenic processes of the  disease. Duration: 37 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) George Perry (Dean, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Matt Wanat (Asst. Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilso...

Thursday, March 31, 2016 Russel Ray (Baylor College of Med) discusses gene editing techniques in building mouse model systems.  The group considers rhombomere origins and what role they might play in circuit organization. Duration: 43 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Gary Gaufo (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA)...

Thursday, March 25, 2015 Anatol  Kreizer (UCSF/Gladstone Institutes) discusses his studies on opposing motor properties of the basal ganglia motor circuit within the framework of the prevailing model of basal ganglia circuits delineated by DeLong in 1989.  The group critically assesses the current model, and discusses some questions of extrapyramidal functional anatomy that have yet...

Thursday, March 24, 2016 Javier Medina (Baylor College of Med) discusses the cerebellum, its fundamental circuit, and attempts to understand it’s role in behavior as well as abstract toward a fundamental computational role for  cerebellum. Duration: 41 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Isabel Muzzio (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc. Prof,...

Thursday, February 18, 2016 Christopher Olsen (Medical College of Wisconsin) discusses the brain's motivational system, and whether the same mechanisms contribute to drugs of abuse as to natural reward. Duration: 37 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Matt Wanat (Asst. Prof, UTSA) Gerard Beaudoin (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original mus...

Thursday, February 11, 2016 Gordon Shepherd joins us from the Northwestern University School of Medicine.  We discuss the relevance and evolution of the idea of the "canonical" cortical circuit, and some of the ways in which cortical microcircuitry is being recast in light of new genetic tools. Duration: 45 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst. Prof, UTSA) Salma...

Thursday, February 4, 2016 Jag Kanwal joins us from the Georgetown University School of Medicine. We discuss multi-functional specialization of the auditory cortex of the mustache bat to perception of communication sounds. Duration: 45 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (UTSA) Salma Quraishi (UTSA) Todd Troyer ( UTSA) Charles Wilson (UTSA) Nicole Wicha ( UTSA) acknow...

Thursday, January 21, 2016 Mark Bevan joins us (once again) from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.  We discuss changes in neuronal activity and network connectivity in models of Parkinson’s disease. Duration: 35 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Gerard Beaudoin (Res Asst. Prof, UTSA) Soomin Song (UTSA PhD student) Matthew Wanat (Asst. Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilso...

Thursday, January 14, 2016 Hillel Adesnik joins us from the University of California at Berkeley, to discuss recent advances in cortical circuits. We discuss the various routes for the flow of activity within and across cortical layers in sensory cortex. Duration: 33 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst. Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troye...

November 10, 2015 Rusty Gage joins us from the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute to talk about neuron and neuron circuit generation and regeneration in adults. Duration: 34 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst. Prof, UTSA) Michael Foret (grad student, UTSA) Gary Gaufo (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Annie Lin (Asst. Prof, UTSA) Christopher Rhode (grad student, UTS...

Thursday, November 19, 2015 Patrick Sheets joins us from the Indiana University School of Medicine South Bend and University of Notre Dame.  We discuss what makes pain hurt and the interaction between somatosensory pain pathways and pain control networks in the brain. Duration: 38 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst. Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc. Pro...

Thursday, November 12, 2015 Robert Stackman joins us from the Department of Psychology and the Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University.  We discuss the hippocampus, recognition, episodic memory, context and space. Duration: 42 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Brian Derrick (Prof, UTSA) Isabel Muzzio (Asst. Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc. Prof,...

On November 5, 2015, Mimi Kao joined us from the Department of Biology at Tufts University to discuss the anterior forebrain pathway in song birds and its role in song learning. Discussants (in alphabetical order Todd Troyer (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, October 29, 2015 Craig Atwood joins us from the University of Wisconsin and the VA Hospital in Madison to discuss his ideas about the relationship between the reproductive system control of the cell cycle and aging. Topics include the origin and possible treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and the  possibility of extending human longevity. Duration: 37 minutes Discussants:(...

Monday, October 26, 2015 Paul Kulesa joins us from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research to talk about the neural crest and what we can learn from it about how neurons differentiate, migrate to their correct locations, and make specific synaptic contacts. Duration: 40 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Gerard Beaudoin (Asst Prof, UTSA) Gary Gaufo (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Fidel Santamaria...

Monday, October 19, 2015 Mounya  Elhilai joins us from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University to talk about how the brain identifies sources of sounds and auditory objects. Duration: 38 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc. Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement:...

Thursday, October 15, 2015 Rodrigo España joins us from the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at Drexel University to talk about hypocretin and hypocretin receptor antagonists, sleep, arousal, and motivation. Duration: 34 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Gerard Beaudoin (Res. Asst Prof., UTSA) Idaira Oliva (Postdoctoral Fellow, UTSA) Matt Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA) acknowledgemen...

Monday, October 12, 2015 David Morilak joins us from our neighbor institution, the University of Texas Health Sciences Center San Antonio, to talk about neuromodulators,  norepinephrine, stress and depression. Duration: 40 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Matt Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM...

Thursday, September 17, 2015 Kres̆imir Josić joins us from the University of Houston.  We talk about networks of neurons, getting information out of large data sets, and changing ideas about what constitutes a good stimulus for probing neural systems. Duration: 34 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Fidel Santamaria (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson...