Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Harel Shouval (UT Health, Houston) discusses building models for how time constants of neural circuits adapt to reflect the time constraints of the world.  For instance, learning requires associating cues and later rewards, yet the teaching signal (the reward) is temporally distant from the cue itself well outside the timescale of individual neurons.

For reference, the discussion touches on these papers.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28018206

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26377457

Duration: 41 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA)

Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA)

Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Henry Yin (Duke) discusses a take on hierarchical movement control based on integrative approaches that marry kinematics and optogenetically controlled behavioral assays.

The discussion references this review and paper:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27306757

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27091436

Duration: 34 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Matt Higgs (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof, UTSA)

Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA)

Fidel Santamaria (Assoc Prof, UTSA

Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Leslie Whitaker (NIDA Fellow) talks about how silent synapses in neuronal ensembles might underlie associative learning in the ventral tegmental area and prefrontal cortex.

Duration: 39 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof, UTSA)

Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA)

Alyssa Petko (PhD student, UTSA

Claire Stelly (Fellow, UTSA)

Matt Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

David Weinshenker (Emory U School of Med ) discusses norepinephrine physiology and it’s relevance to the neuropathology of degenerative diseases and addiction.

Duration: 47 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof, UTSA)

Alyssa Petko (PhD student, UTSA

Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA)

Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA

Matt Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.