Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Martha Flanders (Professor, University Minnesota) discusses the ongoing debate in motor systems regarding modularity vs distributed organization in the motor planning system.  The role of efference copy in models of motor planning is discussed, as is hand movement sequencing and coarticulation of letters in sign language.

Duration: 42 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Salma Quraishi (Res...

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Laura Colgin (Asst Professor, UT Austin) talks with us about the early history of the study of brain oscillations, and discusses her work on the potential functional significance of frequency variations in the Gamma band.

Duration: 34 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Salma Quraishi (Res...

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Gina Kuperberg (Associate Professor, Tufts University & MGH) discusses her work on semantic processing during schizophrenia. She gives us a window into the use of language as a tool to probe cognitive processing during thought disorders.

Duration: 42 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Salma Quraishi (Res...

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Ulrich Mayr (Professor, University of Oregon) discusses cognitive inhibition during task switching, the common language of processing time between cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists, and his neuroeconomics work on risk behavior and altruism...

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Neal Waxham (Professor, Dept of Neurobiology & Anatomy, UT Medical School at Houston) discusses molecular dynamics at the PSD, including CaMKII as a structural molecule, molecular trapping at the spine, and the potential modularity of the post synaptic density...

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Zen Faulkes (Assoc Professor, University of Texas Pan-American) discusses his work on characterizing nociceptors in crustaceans, and some of the issues surrounding ethical treatment of invertebrates that his work touches on.  Visit Zen's blog Neurodojo.com for some fun content on neuroethology and beyond...

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The UTSA Neurosciences institute hosted an all-star panel of computational neuroscientists for a symposium on "Neural Dynamics & Coding."  This discussion, recorded after the day's talks, has Todd Troyer leading the group in covering a wide range of topics, including how to talk about coding as you move toward behavior, the distinction between coding and computation, and how much of neural computation is centralized vs...

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Johannes Schul (Associate Professor, University of Missouri) discusses the the katydid communication system and its unique strategy for sound segregation of behaviorally relevant information, in a discussion hosted by Rama Ratnam...

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Gordon  Fishell (NYU School of Medicine) discusses developmental interneuron diversity, the debate between the "lumpers" and "splitters", and the possibility of tracing psychiatric disorders to focal genetic origins.  The group assesses approaches for relating molecular genetics to circuits and ultimately behavior...

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Bharath Chandrasekaran (UT Austin) discusses the corticocentric view of cognitive brain research, and how he has optimized of functional imaging techniques for study of auditory and speech processing, and the influence of music training on the development of auditory skills...