Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Erich Jarvis (Duke University/HHMI) discusses evolutionary origins of the  vocal motor learning pathway in songbirds, his new work on vocal communication in a new mammalian species, and his spearheading of the Avian Brain Nomenclature forum as a consensus building effort that shaped a decade of avian brain research. Duration: 55 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Carlos Paladini (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Fidel Santamaria (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. Duration: 39 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. Duration: 55 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Gary Gaufo (Asst Prof, UTSA) Carlos Paladini (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. Duration: 39 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Rama Ratnam (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. offloaded to peripheral systems. Participants: Uri Eden (Boston University) Adrienne Fairhall (UW, Seattle) Eugene Izhikevich (BrainCorp) Eric Shea-Brown (UW, Seattle) Todd Troyer (UTSA) Charles Wilson (UTSA) Michael Farries (UTSA) Fidel Santamaria (UTSA) Duration: 42 minutes acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. Duration: 39 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Sakshi Puri (Student, UT Pan Am) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Denard Simmons (PhD student, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. Duration: 45 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Fidel Santamaria (Asst Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. Duration: 45 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Angelique Blackburn (PhD student, UTSA) Brian Derrick (Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. Asst Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. Asst Prof, UTSA) Brian Derrick (Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

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. Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, November 3, 2011 David Perkel (Professor, Washington University School of Med) discusses the homology between the avian song system and the basal ganglia circuit, and the role of motor variability in the adult songbird learning circuit.  The nature of cortex and its relation to cortex-like structures in the avian brain are discussed. Duration: 32 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Michael Farries (Post-doc, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, October 27, 2011 Karen Bales (Assoc Professor, UC Davis) discusses a monogamous primate model that she is using to study neural correlates of social bonding. Duration: 32 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Rama Ratnam (Asst Prof UTSA) Michelle Valero (Graduate Student, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

October 25, 2011 The UTSA Neurosciences institute hosted a distinguished panel of language neurobiologists for a symposium on "The Bilingual Brain."  This discussion, recorded after the day's talks, has Salma Quraishi leading the group in covering a wide range of topics, including the cognitive advantages conferred by bilingualism, cross-modal bilingualism and critical periods for language acquisition. Participants: Karen Emmorey (San Diego State) Judith Kroll (Penn State) Lee Osterhout (UW Seattle) Salma Quraishi (UTSA) Nicole Wicha (UTSA) Charles Wilson (UTSA) Duration: 36 minutes acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, October 20, 2011 Stephen Lisberger (Professor, HHMI & UCSF) talks with Charles Wilson about solving the problem of how circuits generate behavior using low dimensional model systems, and why it is important to study variability in the nervous system. Duration: 30 minutes acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, October 13, 2011 Kamran Khodakhah (Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine) talks with the group about information coding in cerebellar cortex and his foray  into translational research with a model of rapid onset dystonia.  The  group discusses the current NIH push for translational research at the  expense of basic science and debates the idea of cerebellum as a motor learning structure. Duration: 45 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) James Bower (Prof, UTSA/UTHSCSA) Carlos Paladini (Assoc. Prof UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Fidel Santamaria (Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, September 29, 2011 Helen Scharfman (Professor, NYU Langone School of Medicine) talks about aberrant neurogenesis following seizure activity in the dentate gyrus, and discusses models of how newly born granule cells may aid in information storage and retrieval in memory process. Duration: 45 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Brian Derrick (Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, September 22, 2011 Philip Sabes (Associate Professor, UCSF) talks about modeling complex behaviors that remain relevant and specifically tailored to the  physiology of real neurons and neural circuits in real time. Duration: 45 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, September 15, 2011 Thomas Blanpied (Assistant Professor, University of Maryland School of  Medicine) talks about molecular organization at the post-synaptic density, models of receptor mobility, and visualization of living synapses in real time. Duration: 45 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Brian Derrick (Prof, UTSA) Fidel Santamaria (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, September 1, 2011 David McCormick (Dorys McConnel Duberg Professor of Neurobiology, Yale School of Medicine) talks about flexibility of information coding in neural systems, and the complexity of undertaking studies of functional connectivity in cortical networks. Duration: 40 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Joseph Beatty (Post-doc, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res. Asst Prof, UTSA) Soomin Song (PhD Student, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Prof, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.