Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Thursday, January 31, 2013

William Armstrong (University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center) talks about developing the intracellular biocytin labeling technique.  This is a follow up to our 2008 talk with Bill (episode 15), when he told us about functional studies of neurosecretary cells of the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Sam Pfaff (HHMI, Salk Institute) discusses the heterogeneity of spinal interneurons, vertebrate neural development, and central pattern generators...

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...

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.