Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Geoffrey Schoenbaum (National Institutes of Drug Abuse) discusses the advantages of using principles of learning theory in physiological investigations of associative learning and decision making.  The group reflects on the caveats of constraining behavior and losing the generality of coding

Duration: 30 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof, UTSA)

Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA)

Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA

Matt Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Art Riegel (Medical University of South Carolina) talks with the group about competing ideas of a dopamine neuron archetype and our deepening sense of the heterogeneity of dopamine neurons.  He discusses how he is examining the mechanisms and transducers of stress on the dopamine system. 

Duration: 30 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof, UTSA)

Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA)

Matt Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Yoland Smith (Yerkes Primate Center, Emory University) discusses how the motor symptoms of Parkinsonism may not connect with our emerging  understanding of the the complex interconnectivity of the basal ganglia  thalamo-cortical loop.  The group discuss anatomical details of the  circuit in rodent and primate, and consider other possible network components that might generate the complex pathophysiology of  Parkinson’s Disease.

Apologies for the crackle in  the recording.  We recommend not doing this one with headphones.  This one is worth it though, please bear with us!

Duration: 43 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Alfonso Apicella (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof, UTSA)

Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.