Neuroscientists Talk Shop

On April 8, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Alfredo Fontanini (Stony Brook University) to talk about gustatory insular cortex.  Charles J. Wilson, Fidel Santamaria, Lindsey Macpherson and Salma Quraishi chatted with him on the role of gustatory cortex in taste, expectation and decision making. Alfredo Fontanini MD PhD is Professor & Chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at The Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. https://www.fontaninilab.org/ Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://marlin.life.utsa.edu Fidel Santamaria PhD is Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Lindsey Macpherson PhD is Assistant Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Salma Quraishi PhD is Assistant Professor of Research at UTSA & Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://neuroscience.utsa

On April 1, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Jill Crittenden to talk about the striosomal and matrix compartments of the striatum, differences in their connections, and differences in their behavioral function. Dr. Crittenden is Scientific Advisor to the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. participating in the discussion: Charles J. Wilson, Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. James Jones, PhD, basal ganglia investigator and PhD student in the Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology at UTSA. Hosting: Salma Quraishi PhD is Assistant Professor Research at UTSA & Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://neuroscience.utsa.edu Neuroscientists Talk Shop podcast: https://tinyurl.com/yxatz6fq UTSA Neurosciences Institute: https://neuroscience.utsa.edu The University of Texas San Antonio: https://www.utsa.edu

On March 25, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Dr. Kay Tye of the Salk Institute for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop. Tony Burgos-Robles, Charles Wilson, Matt Wanat, and Salma Quraishi chatted with her about studying social interaction and the effects of social isolation from a neural circuit vantage point. Dr. Tye is Wylie Vale Chair and Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and in the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, both at UC San Diego. https://www.salk.edu/scientist/kay-tye/ Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://marlin.life.utsa.edu Matt Wanat PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.wanatlab.org/ Tony Burgos-Robles PhD is Assistant Professor of Biology at UTSA. Salma Quraishi PhD is Assistant Professor of Research at UTSA & Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://neuroscience.utsa.edu Neuroscientists Talk Sh

On March 18, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Sachin Deshmukh to talk space, environmental complexity and information flow in the entorhinal-hippocampal network. Charles J. Wilson, Francesco Savelli and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about how spatial representations arising in lateral entorhinal cortex with increasing environmental complexity are propagated through the hippocampal circuit. Dr. Deshmukh is Wellcome Trust DBT Intermediate Fellow in the Centre for Neuroscience at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. http://www.cns.iisc.ac.in/home/people... Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA &Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. Francesco Savelli PhD is Assistant Professor of Biology at UTSA https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Salma Quraishi PhD is Assistant Professor of Research of UTSA & Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://neuroscience.utsa.edu Neuroscientists Talk Shop Podcast: https

On February 25, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Dr. Lara Hwa for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Matt Wanat, and Salma Quraishi chatted with her about the intersection of stress and alcohol consumption in rodent models of voluntary alcohol binging. Dr. Hwa is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at Baylor University in Waco. https://www.baylor.edu/psychologyneur... Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. Matt Wanat PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Salma Quraishi PhD is Assistant Professor of Research at UTSA & Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://neuroscience.utsa.edu​​

On  February  10, 2022 we welcomed Dan Butts, to talk about studying sensory system function by statistical modeling of neuron populations in the awake state during natural or near-natural sensory stimulation. We  discuss the use of machine learning tools for data analysis and the  interaction between theories of natural perception and of deep neural  networks Dr. Butts is Associate Professor in the Department of Biology, University of Maryland College Park. https://neurotheory.umd.edu/PeoplePages/dbutts.html Joining in: Charles Wilson, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA Todd Troyer, Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, UTSA Host: Salma Quraishi - Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute & Assistant Professor of Research at UTSA https://neuroscience.utsa.edu https://neuroscience.utsa.edu Neuroscientists Talk Shop podcast: https://tinyurl.com/yxatz6fq UTSA Neurosciences Institute: https://neurosci

On February 4 , 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Zane Lybrand for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Jenny Hsieh, Chris Navara, and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about new work describing aberrant migration of adult born granule cells following pilocarpine insult, and its contribution to generation of spontaneous seizure. Zane Lybrand PhD is Assistant Professor of Biology at Texas Womens University. https://apps.twu.edu/my1cv/profile.as...​ Jenny Hsieh PhD is Semmes Foundation Chair in Cell Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Brain Health Consortium. https://hsiehlab.org​ Chris Navara PhD is Associate Professor of Research in Biology at UTSA and Director of the Stem Cell Core. https://www.utsa.edu/bhc/core/stem-ce...​ Salma Quraishi PhD is Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute & Assistant Professor of Research at UTSA https://neuroscience.utsa.edu​

On January 28, 2021, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with our own Francesco Savelli for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Isabel Muzzio, and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about spatial reference frames and computation in the hippocampal network. Dr. Savelli is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and member of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://marlin.life.utsa.edu Isabel Muzzio PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Salma Quraishi PhD is Assistant Professor Research at UTSA & Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://neuroscience.utsa.edu

On December 3, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Brian Wiltgen for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Isabel Muzzio, Anthony Burgos-Robles and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about mapping mechanisms of memory consolidation and retrieval in hippocampus and cortex. Dr. Wiltgen is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology & a member of the Center for Neuroscience at UC Davis. https://wiltgenlab.sf.ucdavis.edu Anthony Burgos-Robles PhD is Assistant Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Isabel Muzzio PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Matthew Wanat PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA https://www.wanatlab.org Salma Quraishi PhD is Assistant Professor Research at UTSA & Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. 

On November 19, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Tad Blair for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Francesco Savelli, Todd Troyer and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about mapping brain states on behavior. Dr. Blair is Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology & a member of the Brain Research Institute at UCLA https://www.psych.ucla.edu/faculty/pa... Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://marlin.life.utsa.edu Francesco Savelli PhD is Assistant Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Todd Troyer PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Salma Quraishi PhD is Assistant Professor Research at UTSA & Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute.

On October 29, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with UCSF Neurosurgeon Philip Starr for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Matt Higgs and Salma Quraishi chatted with Dr. Starr about state-of-the-art closed loop brain stimulation therapies in humans and pathological oscillations in the basal ganglia network. Philip Starr MD PhD is Professor of Neurosurgery; Dolores Cakebread Chair in Neurological Surgery; Surgical Director, Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education And Care Center (PADRECC), San Francisco Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center https://www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/... https://pdcenter.ucsf.edu/philip-star... http://www.cnep-uc.org/founding-membe... Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. Matt Higgs PhD is Assistant Professor of Research in Biology at UTSA Salma Quraishi PhD is Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute & Assistant Professor of Research

On October 22, 2020 the UTSA gang sat down with Nicola Grissom (UMN) for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop. Charles J. Wilson, Matt Wanat, Lindsey Macpherson & Salma Quraishi chatted with her about the impact of sex on executive function & how genetic factors interact with sex in autism. Nicola Grissom PhD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and part of the NeuroPRSMH (NeuroPlasticity Research in Support of Mental Health) Center for Computational Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. http://www.neuroscience.umn.edu/peopl... https://www.nicolagrissomlab.com/ Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://marlin.life.utsa.edu Matthew Wanat PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.wanatlab.org/ Lindsey Macpherson PhD is Assistant Professor of Biology at UTSA. Salma Quraishi PhD is Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute & Assistant Professor of Resear

On October 15, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Eliza Bliss-Moreau (UC Davis) for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Melanie Carless, Todd Troyer and Salma Quraishi chatted with her about frameworks for affective neuroscience and how she is using multi species approaches to decompose affect into tractable biological features, i.e., valence and arousal. Eliza Bliss-Moreau PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and a Core Scientist at the California National Primate Research Center at University of California at Davis. https://www.elizablissmoreau.com https://psychology.ucdavis.edu/people... Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute.  Melanie Carless PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA. https://www.utsa.edu/biology/faculty/... Todd Troyer PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA. Salma Quraishi PhD is Associate Director of th

On October 8, 2020, University of Texas San Antonio neuroscientists sat down with Michael Hasselmo for an episode of Neuroscientists Talk Shop.  Charles J. Wilson, Isabel Muzzio, Francesco Savelli and Salma Quraishi chatted with him about how models have guided the search for neural correlates of episodic memory, from grid cells, to time representations to egocentric boundary cells. Dr. Hasselmo is Warren Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences & Director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience at Boston University http://www.bu.edu/psych/profile/micha... Charles J. Wilson PhD is Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology at UTSA & Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://marlin.life.utsa.edu Isabel Muzzio PhD is Associate Professor of Biology at UTSA.  Francesco Savelli PhD is Assistant Professor of Biology at UTSA.  Salma Quraishi PhD is Assistant Professor Research at UTSA & Associate Director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. https://neuroscience.utsa.edu

Friday, April 24, 2020 Jacques Wadiche (UAB School of Medicine) talks to us about multivesicular neurotransmitter release (MVR) in the CNS. He takes us through recent work from his lab that gets at PKA-dependent molecular regulation of MVR whereby synaptic release depends on the number of docked vesicles available for release upstream of release probability. Duration: 51 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Matt Higgs (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, February 20, 2020 Tim Petros (NICHD/NIH) talks about new single cell RNA and epigenetic approaches to understanding the intrinsic programs that determine interneuron diversity. The group discusses how to determine causation vs correlation in identifying candidate mechanisms that regulate interneuron fate decisions, and how historic concepts of cell type (based on morphology, connectivity, physiology, etc) map onto transcriptomic data clustering. Duration: 46 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Annie Lin (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Asif Maroof (Asst Prof, UTSA) Salma Quraishi (Res Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, February 13, 2020 Savio Chan (Northwestern) gives us his thoughts on cell diversity in the external globus pallidus. He weighs in on how to define cell type, when to stop mining for more diversity, and whether cell type may even be a relevant construct in thinking about a network’s function. In an interesting aside, Charlie bears out how Savio’s work delivers the key functional impact of a GPe-striatal connection that was originally left out of the basal ganglia wiring diagram because it appeared not to fit the direct/indirect pathway dichotomy. The group considers the age-old dilemma of editorializing observations to fit a functional story, landing on the principle, “follow the data!” Duration: 35 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, February 6, 2020 Steve Small (UT Dallas) discusses how well 19th and 20th century localizationist metaphors for the brain have served our understanding of behavior, especially in the realm of language, and what new strategies are replacing them in the new millennium. Duration: 46 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Nicole Wicha (Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, January 23, 2020 Matt van der Meer (Dartmouth) talks about the role of oscillations in routing information flow in the ventral striatum. Duration: 37 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Francesco Savelli (Assistant Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.

Thursday, November 14, 2019 Stephen Maren (Texas A&M) talks about the common neural circuitry mediating fear conditioning and drug relapse. Duration: 39 minutes Discussants:(in alphabetical order) Isabel Muzzio (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Todd Troyer (Assoc Prof, UTSA) Matt Wanat (Asst Prof, UTSA) Charles Wilson (Ewing Halsell Chair, UTSA) acknowledgement: JM Tepper for original music.