Seminar Series

Population activity in the cerebellar cortex that mediates behavior and learning

Court Hull

Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University

host: Greg Horwitz

Abstract: The cerebellum is a key brain region involved in associative learning, and in particular for generating predictive sensorimotor associations.  To mediate such learning, convergent input from two main pathways is thought to be required; the climbing fiber and granule cell pathways.  Using multiphoton imaging in awake behaving mice, we have investigated how each of these pathways encodes the sensory and motor information necessary for learning.  These studies have revealed surprising results that extend current views of cerebellar learning.  Specifically, we have found that cerebellar climbing fibers can exhibit reward-related responses that are consistent with many of the predictions of reinforcement learning, in contrast with the long-held view that the cerebellum operates exclusively according to supervised learning principles.  In addition, we have found that granule cells generate sparse population codes that rely on local synaptic inhibition to enable pattern separation and learned sensorimotor discriminations.  I will discuss the implications of these results in the context of cerebellar associative learning.

Awake perception is associated with dedicated neuronal assemblies in cerebral cortex

Alain Destexhe

Saclay Paris and European Institute for Theoretical Neuroscience

Host: Adrienne Fairhall

Spiking codes for skilled motor control

Sam Sober, PhD

Director of the Simons-Emory International Consortium on Motor Control

Emory University

Abstract: Neurons coordinate patterns of muscle activity to produce an astonishing variety of behaviors. However, the biological and computational bases of sensorimotor control remain mysterious, in part due to a lack of experimental hardware and computational frameworks for examining motor signals. To address these challenges, my group combines physiological, computational, and engineering approaches to understand motor control across species and behaviors. My talk will provide an overview of three projects. First, physiological and computational studies of vocal production in songbirds reveal that neurons in the motor system employ millisecond-resolution spike timing codes to regulate vocal behavior, highlighting the need to examine spiking codes across cortical, basal ganglia, and spinal motor circuits. Second, to examine spiking codes across motor circuits, we have developed electrode arrays for examining spiking patterns in muscle tissue during natural behaviors. These “Myomatrix” arrays reveal the spatiotemporal structure of muscle activity at motor-unit resolution across effectors (forelimb, trunk, orofacial, respiratory, and vocal muscles) and species – including humans – during unconstrained behavior. Third, in-progress studies examining muscle spike trains in mice (locomotion) and monkeys (reaching movements) reveal how complex patterns of motor unit activity shape skilled forelimb control. https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/soberlab/  

Probing and manipulating the hippocampus-accumbens-VTA circuit in drug addiction

Luke Sjulson

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Abstract: It has long been known that exposure to contextual cues previously paired with drug use is likely to trigger relapse. In the first part of the talk, I will discuss progress we have made toward understanding the role of selective plasticity in the hippocampus to nucleus accumbens pathway in storing drug-context associations. In the second half, I will discuss translational applications, including the development of a therapeutic strategy for opioid use disorder based on a novel chemogenetic opioid receptor mutant. website:  https://sjulsonlab.org/

“Properties of robust, flexible, and state-dependent respiratory control”

Nathan A Baertsch, Ph.D.

Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Center for Integrative Brain Research

Abstract: Despite the deceptive simplicity of breathing, the underlying neural control of this vital physiological process is complex. Breathing is regulated automatically by neural circuits in the medulla to ensure breathing continues without interruption during wakefulness, sleep, and even anesthesia. To do so, the respiratory rhythm produced by these circuits must be robust, but also flexible to adapt breathing to changes in metabolic or environmental demands. In addition to this automatic control, breathing is conditionally modified by behavior and emotion in the awake state. This seminar will provide an overview of our recent work to understand the brainstem circuits and neural properties that mediate the robust, flexible, and state-dependent properties of breathing.    

Calcium Signaling, Chemotherapy, and the Prevention of Treatment Side Effects

Barbara Ehrlich, Ph.D.

Departments of Pharmacology and Cellular & Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine

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website: https://medicine.yale.edu/pharm/profile/barbara-ehrlich/

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Vincent Costa

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2023 Crill Lecture

Eve Marder

Brandeis University

 

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Abstract: website: host: John Tuthill

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