Neuroscientists Talk Shop

On August 31, 2023 we got a chance to talk to Lindsey Macpherson on the functional organization of the taste buds, taste cells, and the primary afferent neurons of taste in the geniculate and petrosal ganglia. Lindsey has joined our discussion several times in the past, but this time we discuss her own experimental work on the taste system...

On August 24, we met with Mike Mauk to talk about the importance of timing in learned movements, and the granularity of the representation of time in the cerebellar cortex. This was Mike's second time on the podcast. We talked to him previously in September, 2008. To listen to that podcast, go to episode 16 of the audio-only podcasts, on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/neuroscientists-talk-shop/id279181187), or Spotify (https://open.spotify...

On February 5, 2009, we were joined by Allison Doupe, who was Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Physiology at the University of California San Francisco. Allison talked with us about the value of learned birdsong as a model for sensory and motor learning, the brain circuitry responsible for learning, remembering and controlling the song, and the importance of variability in adapting the song to changes in animal state or the environment...

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 Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois...

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 and Regenerative Biology, UTSA...

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...

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...

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, Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy, LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine...

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...

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...