Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Sam Sober (Emory/Ga Tech) discusses how the brain solves the problem of which errors to use to drive behavior and learning in the vocal learning system of songbirds.  He also discusses the importance of understanding  the biomechanics of the bird vocal organ as a way to understand the  mapping between neurons and the motor control involved in singing.

Duration: 45 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Fidel Santamaria (Assoc Prof, UTSA)

Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA)

Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Arturo Andrade (Lipscombe Lab, Brown University) discusses voltage sensitive calcium channels in pain and anxiety.  He introduces the constellation of CaVs, their diversity, and methods he is using to tie individual channel dynamics to behavior.

Duration: 35 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Fidel Santamaria (Assoc Prof, UTSA)

Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA)

Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Larry Zweifel (UW Seattle) discusses understanding the dopamine circuit and its behavioral consequences through genetic manipulations.

Duration: 35 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Gerard Beaudoin (Asst Prof UTSA)

Carlos Paladini (Assoc Prof UTSA)

Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA)

Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Todd Roberts (UT Southwestern) discusses using optogenetics to probe how representation of the tutor song is encoded in songbird HVC.

Duration: 32 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA)

Anand Kulkarni (PhD student, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Massimo Scanziani (HHMI UCSD) discusses how cortical circuitry in primary visual cortex serves as an amplifier of preprocessed signals from thalamus, rather than building new representations.  He also theorizes about ways in which interneuron diversity may be catalogued and understood in the near future.

Duration: 39 minutes

Discussants:(in alphabetical order)

Alfonso Apicella (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Salma Quraishi (Asst Prof, UTSA)

Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA)

Charles Wilson (Professor, UTSA)

acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.