Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Thursday, February 20, 2014  Paul Colombo (Tulane) discusses the dynamic interactions between memory systems, and data that indicate that subjects use different strategies  that leverage different memory systems to accomplish the same task.  He also discusses his CREB viral vector model system for manipulating interactions between memory systems. Duration: 33 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Brian Derrick (Prof, UTSA) Carlos Paladini (Assoc Prof, UTSA Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA Charles Wilson (Professor, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, February 13, 2014 Nace Golding (UT Austin) discusses dendritic integration and microsecond temporal processing in the auditory cortex. Duration: 35 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) James Bower (Prof, UTHSCSA) Carlos Paladini (Assoc Prof, UTSA Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA Charles Wilson (Professor, UTSA)

Richard Zigmond (Case Western Reserve) discusses macrophage action in peripheral nerve regeneration. Duration: 38 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini (Assoc Prof, UTSA Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Professor, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music. Recorded: Thursday, January 30, 2014

Shaowen Bao (UC Berkeley) discusses auditory critical periods, the use of statistically complex, naturalistic auditory stimuli to probe species-specific auditory processing and representations.  He discusses the development of categorical perception, and the hierarchical development of sensory representations specific to auditory cortex. Duration: 38 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Alfonso Apicella (Asst Prof, UTSA Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Professor, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music. Recorded: Thursday, January 23, 2014

Arnold Kriegstein (UCSF) discusses differences in proliferative zones of human and mouse, and his group's discovery of a novel class of neurogenic radial glia in the outer subventricular zone of human neocortex, which  may have provided a critical evolutionary step underlying increased  cortical size and complexity in the human brain. Duration: 43 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Gary Gaufo (Assoc Prof, UTSA Annie Lin (Asst Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Professor, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music. Recorded: Thursday, December 12, 2013

Friday, December 6, 2013 In December 2013, The UTSA Neurosciences institute assembled a group of premier biophysicists to discuss "Power Law Dynamics in the Brain."   Recorded after the day's talks, this episode has Charlie Wilson (UTSA) leading the group in covering a wide range of topics on scale-invariant network dynamics as they relate to neural systems, including consideration of criticality and optimality. Participants: Larry Abbott (Columbia University) Jim Bower (Boston University) John Beggs (University of Indiana) Dietmar Plenz (NIMH) Charles Wilson (UTSA) Fidel Santamaria (UTSA) Duration: 35 minutes acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, December 5, 2013 Louis  Reichardt (UCSF/Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative) discusses his techniques driven neuroscience, and his thoughts on moving heading the SFAR). Duration: 35 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Gerard Beaudoin (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Gary Gaufo (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Annie Lin (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Professor, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, November 21, 2013 Lena Ting (Georgia Tech/ Emory) discusses her biomechanical approach for understanding neural control of motor systems. Duration: 42 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Professor, UTSA) acknowledgment: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, October 17, 2013 Ellen Lau (University of Maryland) discusses the field of neurolinguistics,  and its approach to neural mechanisms of language.  The group discusses the Wernicke-Geschwind model, and some cognitive scientists' resistance to the idea of prediction as a driving force in language. Duration: 42 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Professor, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, September 19, 2013 Ani Patel (Tufts University) discusses the neuroscience of music, and its overlap with language processing networks.  He describes his OPERA  hypothesis, that describes some of the conditions for plasticity in the brain in response to musical training. Duration: 36 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Bharath Chandrasekaran (Asst Prof, UT Austin) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) acknowledgment: JM Tepper for original music

Thursday, September 12, 2013 Eric Fortune (NJIT) discusses the neural bases of cooperative behavior in duetting songbird pairs. Duration: 50 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgment: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, September 5, 2013 Cameron  McIntyre (Case Western Reserve) discusses the idea of being able to  "dose" deep brain stimulation (DBS), and how it is now being used to treat neuropsychiatric disorders like depression. Duration: 41 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgment: JM Tepper for original music.

Daniel Ansari (University of Western Ontario) discusses the new field of Mind,  Brain and Education (sometimes called Neuroeducation) which seeks to bring evidence based practice and empirical calculation into the field of education research and practice.  He also discusses his work on the mathematical organization of the brain. Duration: 46 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) James Bower (Professor, UTHSCSA) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music. Thursday, April 25, 2013

Thursday, April 18, 2013 Sam Pfaff (HHMI, Salk Institute) discusses the heterogeneity of spinal interneurons, vertebrate neural development, and central pattern generators. Duration: 42 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Gerard Beaudoin III (Postdoc, UTSA) Gary Gaufo (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, April 11, 2013 Lee Cox (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) discusses some of the challenges in investigating thalamic investigation, the contribution of the thalamus to sensory processing, the significance of rhythmicity in thalamocortical systems; the significance of interneuron species and the curiousness of feedforward and recurrent connectivity. Duration: 42 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Joe Beatty (Postdoc, UTSA) Michael Farries (Postdoc, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, April 4, 2013 Gordon Shepherd (Yale) discusses the idea that all cortical circuitry is based on elaboration of a basic microcircuit.  The group discusses ideas that have shaped the understanding of cortical function, including the cortical column. Duration: 43 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) James Bower (Prof, UTHSCSA) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Soomin Song (PhD student, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, March 7, 2013 Russell Poldrack (UT Austin) discusses how cognitive fMRI studies are evolving  from a focus on "blobology" to the new emphasis on data mining methods that focus on network connectivity.  He introduces the idea of phenomics as applied to cognitive phenotypes, and the virtues of data sharing in functional studies of cognition. Duration: 38 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Fidel Santamaria (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, February 28, 2013 Julie Kauer (Brown University) discusses her work on plasticity and addiction, specifically her discovery of the potentiation of GABA  synapses (GABA-LTP) on dopamine neurons. The group discusses how acute drugs and stress produce a persistent block of GABA-LTP, and how this  phenomenon might be significant to behavior, addiction and its relevance  to the reward prediction error function of dopamine neurons. Duration: 42 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Denard Simmons (PhD student, Paladini Lab UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, February 21, 2013 Barbara Finlay (Cornell University) discusses her comparative brain development database, "Translating Time."  She takes questions from the group regarding the significance of comparing developmental events across species, and talks about applying an evo-devo approach to questions of cognition. Duration: 39 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Gary Gaufo (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, February 7, 2013 Jocubas Ziburkus (University of Houston) talks about in vitro models of epilepsy, both pharmacological and genetic, and the role of inhibitory interneurons and neuromodulators in seizure mechanics. Duration: 53 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.