All years
All events, All years
Optogenetic fMRI and the Investigation of Global Brain Circuit Mechanisms
Lecture
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Hour: 14:00
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Optogenetic fMRI and the Investigation of Global Brain Circuit Mechanisms
Jin Hyung Lee, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Bioengineering, Neurosurgery, and Electrical Engineering (Courtesy)
Stanford University
Understanding the functional communication across brain has been a long sought-after goal of neuroscientists. However, due to the widespread and highly interconnected nature of brain circuits, the dynamic relationship between neuronal network elements remains elusive. With the development of optogenetic functional magnetic resonance imaging (ofMRI), it is now possible to observe whole-brain level network activity that results from modulating with millisecond- timescale resolution the activity of genetically, spatially, and topologically defined cell populations. ofMRI uniquely enables mapping global patterns of brain activity that result from the selective and precise control of neuronal populations. Advances in the molecular toolbox of optogenetics, as well as improvements in imaging technology, will bring ofMRI closer to its full potential. In particular, the integration of ultra-fast data acquisition, high SNR, and combinatorial optogenetics will enable powerful systems that can modulate and visualize brain activity in real-time. ofMRI is anticipated to play an important role in the dissection and control of network-level brain circuit function and dysfunction. In this talk, the ofMRI technology will be introduced with advanced approaches to bring it to its full potential, ending with examples of dissecting whole brain circuits associated with neurological diseases utilizing ofMRI.
Short Bio:
Dr. Lee received her Bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University and Masters and Doctoral degree from Stanford University, all in Electrical Engineering. She is a recipient of the 2008 NIH/NIBIB K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, 2010 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, 2010 Okawa Foundation Research Grant Award, 2011 NSF CAREER Award, 2012 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2012 Epilepsy Therapy Project award, 2013 Alzheimer’s Association New Investigator Award, 2014 IEEE EMBS BRAIN young investigator award, and the 2017 NIH/NIMH BRAIN grant award. As an Electrical Engineer by training with Neuroscience research interest, her goal is to analyze, debug, and engineer the brain circuit through innovative technology.
1. Hyun Joo Lee†, Andrew Weitz†, David Bernal-Casas, Ben A. Duffy, Mankin Choy, Alexxai Kravitz, Anatol Kreitzer, Jin Hyung Lee*, Activation of direct and indirect pathway medium spiny neurons drives distinct brain-wide responses, Neuron, 2016;91(2):412-424.
2. Jia Liu†, Ben A. Duffy†, David Bernal-Casas, Zhongnan Fang, Jin Hyung Lee*, Comparison of fMRI analysis methods for heterogeneous BOLD responses in block design studies, Neuroimage, 2017;147:390-408.
3. David Bernal-Casas, Hyun Joo Lee, Andrew Weitz, Jin Hyung Lee*, Studying brain circuit function with dynamic causal modeling for optogenetic fMRI, Neuron, 2017;93:522-532.
Pay attention and learn from experience!: The transcriptional representation of experience and the role of the claustrum in attention
Lecture
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Pay attention and learn from experience!: The transcriptional representation of experience and the role of the claustrum in attention
Dr. Ami Citri
ELSC, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Windows to the Brain: Advances in Optical Imaging for Understanding Neural Circuit Function
Conference
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Hour: 08:30 - 17:30
Location:
The David Lopatie Conference Centre
Windows to the Brain: Advances in Optical Imaging for Understanding Neural Circuit Function
Biomarker research in major depression
Lecture
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Nella and Leon Benoziyo Building for Brain Research
Biomarker research in major depression
M.D.,Ph.D,Prof. Hiroshi Kunugi
Director, Dept of Mental Disorder Research,
National Institute of Neuroscience,
National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo
Social place cells in the bat hippocampus
Lecture
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Social place cells in the bat hippocampus
Dr. David B. Omer
Dept of Neurobiology
Weizmann Institute of Science
Social animals have to know the spatial positions of conspecifics. However, it is unknown how the position of others is represented in the brain. We designed a spatial observational-learning task, in which an observer bat mimicked a demonstrator bat while we recorded hippocampal dorsal-CA1 neurons from the observer bat. A neuronal subpopulation represented the position of the other bat, in allocentric coordinates. About half of these “social place cells” represented also the observer’s own position—that is, were place cells. The representation of the demonstrator bat did not reflect self-movement or trajectory planning by the observer. Some neurons represented also the position of inanimate moving objects; however, their representation differed from the representation of the demonstrator bat. This suggests a role for hippocampal CA1 neurons in social-spatial cognition.
Various approaches to online inference - human behavior and theoretical models
Lecture
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Various approaches to online inference - human behavior and theoretical models
Dr. Rava Azeredo da Silveira
Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France
In natural settings, we make decisions based on streams of partial and noisy information. Arguably, we summarize the perceived information into a probabilistic model of the world, which we can exploit to make decisions. This talk will explore such ‘mental models’ in the context of idealized tasks that can be carried out in the laboratory and modeled quantitatively. The starting point of the talk will be a sequential inference task that probes inference in changing environments, in humans. I will describe the task and an experimental finding, namely, that humans make use of fine differences in temporal statistics when making inferences. While our observations agrees qualitatively with an optimal inference model, the data exhibit biases. What is more, human responses, unlike those of the optimal model, are variable, and this behavioral variability is itself modulated during the inference task. In order to uncover the putative algorithmic framework employed by humans, I will go on to examine a family of models that break away from the optimal model in diverse ways. This investigation will suggest a picture in which humans carry out inference using noisy mental representations. More specifically, rather than representing a whole probability function, human subjects may manipulate probabilities using a (possibly modest) number of samples. The approach just outlined illustrates a range of possible computational structures of sub-optimal inference, but it lacks the appeal of a normative framework. If time permits, I will discuss recent ideas on a normative approach to human inference subject to internal ‘costs’ or ‘drives’, which can explain various biases. While different in its formulation, this approach shares conceptual commonalities with the rational inattention theory and other constrained optimization frameworks in cognitive science.
Serotonin's roles in learning and decision-making
Lecture
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Hour: 10:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Serotonin's roles in learning and decision-making
Dr. Eran Lottem
Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon
Neural activity imaging reveals computational principles in the neuromodulatory system
Lecture
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Hour: 09:00
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Neural activity imaging reveals computational principles in the neuromodulatory system
Dr. Takashi Kawashima
HHMI Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA
Hippocampal sensitivity to event boundaries in the encoding of narrative episodes
Lecture
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Hour: 13:00
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Hippocampal sensitivity to event boundaries in the encoding of narrative episodes
Dr. Aya Ben-Yakov
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge
An extensive body of research has established that the hippocampus plays a pivotal role in the encoding of new associations. Yet it remains unclear how entire episodes that unfold over time are bound together in memory. Real-life episodes can be viewed as a sequence of interrelated episodic elements, and their encoding may be incremental, such that each element that is encountered is registered to memory. Conversely, the episode may be stored in a temporary buffer and registered to long-term memory as a cohesive unit when it has come to closure. Using short film clips as memoranda, we find that hippocampal encoding-related activity is time-locked to the offset of the event, potentially reflecting the encoding of a bound representation to long-term memory. Notably, when distinct clips were presented in immediate succession, the hippocampus responded at the offset of each event, suggesting hippocampal activity is triggered the occurrence of event boundaries (transition between events). However, while brief film clips mimic several aspects of real-life, they are still discrete events. To determine whether event boundaries drive hippocampal activity in an ongoing experience, we analysed brain activity of over 200 participants who viewed a naturalistic film and found that the hippocampus responded both reliably and specifically to shifts between scenes. Taken together, these results suggest that during encoding of a continuous experience, event boundaries drive hippocampal processing, potentially supporting the transformation of the continuous stream of information into distinct episodic representations.
From perception to action: imaging human brain function
Conference
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Hour: 08:30 - 13:30
Location:
The David Lopatie Conference Centre
Pages
All years
All events, All years
Social place cells in the bat hippocampus
Lecture
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Social place cells in the bat hippocampus
Dr. David B. Omer
Dept of Neurobiology
Weizmann Institute of Science
Social animals have to know the spatial positions of conspecifics. However, it is unknown how the position of others is represented in the brain. We designed a spatial observational-learning task, in which an observer bat mimicked a demonstrator bat while we recorded hippocampal dorsal-CA1 neurons from the observer bat. A neuronal subpopulation represented the position of the other bat, in allocentric coordinates. About half of these “social place cells” represented also the observer’s own position—that is, were place cells. The representation of the demonstrator bat did not reflect self-movement or trajectory planning by the observer. Some neurons represented also the position of inanimate moving objects; however, their representation differed from the representation of the demonstrator bat. This suggests a role for hippocampal CA1 neurons in social-spatial cognition.
Various approaches to online inference - human behavior and theoretical models
Lecture
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Various approaches to online inference - human behavior and theoretical models
Dr. Rava Azeredo da Silveira
Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France
In natural settings, we make decisions based on streams of partial and noisy information. Arguably, we summarize the perceived information into a probabilistic model of the world, which we can exploit to make decisions. This talk will explore such ‘mental models’ in the context of idealized tasks that can be carried out in the laboratory and modeled quantitatively. The starting point of the talk will be a sequential inference task that probes inference in changing environments, in humans. I will describe the task and an experimental finding, namely, that humans make use of fine differences in temporal statistics when making inferences. While our observations agrees qualitatively with an optimal inference model, the data exhibit biases. What is more, human responses, unlike those of the optimal model, are variable, and this behavioral variability is itself modulated during the inference task. In order to uncover the putative algorithmic framework employed by humans, I will go on to examine a family of models that break away from the optimal model in diverse ways. This investigation will suggest a picture in which humans carry out inference using noisy mental representations. More specifically, rather than representing a whole probability function, human subjects may manipulate probabilities using a (possibly modest) number of samples. The approach just outlined illustrates a range of possible computational structures of sub-optimal inference, but it lacks the appeal of a normative framework. If time permits, I will discuss recent ideas on a normative approach to human inference subject to internal ‘costs’ or ‘drives’, which can explain various biases. While different in its formulation, this approach shares conceptual commonalities with the rational inattention theory and other constrained optimization frameworks in cognitive science.
Serotonin's roles in learning and decision-making
Lecture
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Hour: 10:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Serotonin's roles in learning and decision-making
Dr. Eran Lottem
Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon
Neural activity imaging reveals computational principles in the neuromodulatory system
Lecture
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Hour: 09:00
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Neural activity imaging reveals computational principles in the neuromodulatory system
Dr. Takashi Kawashima
HHMI Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, VA
Hippocampal sensitivity to event boundaries in the encoding of narrative episodes
Lecture
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Hour: 13:00
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Hippocampal sensitivity to event boundaries in the encoding of narrative episodes
Dr. Aya Ben-Yakov
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge
An extensive body of research has established that the hippocampus plays a pivotal role in the encoding of new associations. Yet it remains unclear how entire episodes that unfold over time are bound together in memory. Real-life episodes can be viewed as a sequence of interrelated episodic elements, and their encoding may be incremental, such that each element that is encountered is registered to memory. Conversely, the episode may be stored in a temporary buffer and registered to long-term memory as a cohesive unit when it has come to closure. Using short film clips as memoranda, we find that hippocampal encoding-related activity is time-locked to the offset of the event, potentially reflecting the encoding of a bound representation to long-term memory. Notably, when distinct clips were presented in immediate succession, the hippocampus responded at the offset of each event, suggesting hippocampal activity is triggered the occurrence of event boundaries (transition between events). However, while brief film clips mimic several aspects of real-life, they are still discrete events. To determine whether event boundaries drive hippocampal activity in an ongoing experience, we analysed brain activity of over 200 participants who viewed a naturalistic film and found that the hippocampus responded both reliably and specifically to shifts between scenes. Taken together, these results suggest that during encoding of a continuous experience, event boundaries drive hippocampal processing, potentially supporting the transformation of the continuous stream of information into distinct episodic representations.
Challenging the sensory division of labor in the brain. Lessons from the deafs’ sense of rhythm and tactile braille reading in the sighted.
Lecture
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Challenging the sensory division of labor in the brain. Lessons from the deafs’ sense of rhythm and tactile braille reading in the sighted.
Dr. Marcin Szwed
Dept of Psychology,
Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
It is established that the brain is capable of large-scale reorganization following sensory deprivation or injury. What is less clear is what are the rules that guide it. In the blind, many visual regions preserve their task specificity despite being recruited for different sensory input; ventral visual areas, for example, become engaged in auditory and tactile object-recognition. However, we are interested in two questions. First, is sensory deprivation necessary for such task-specific reorganization, or can it happen in non-deprived individuals? In this series of experiments, during 9 months we taught Braille, a tactile alphabet, to sighted individuals and observed the resulting changes with structural and functional MRI. (Siuda, Krzywicka, Bola et al, eLife, 2016). Second, we wondered whether task-specific reorganization is unique to the visual cortex, or alternatively, is it a general principle applying to other cortical areas. Here, we enrolled deaf and hearing adults into an fMRI experiment, during which they discriminated between rhythms. In hearing individuals, rhythm processing is performed mostly in the auditory domain. Our prediction was that if task-specific reorganization applies to the human auditory cortex, performing this function visually should recruit the auditory cortex in the deaf (Bola, Zimmerman et al., PNAS, 2017).
Revealing the neural correlates of behavior without behavioral measurements
Lecture
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Revealing the neural correlates of behavior without behavioral measurements
Dr. Alon Rubin
Senior Intern, Yaniv Ziv Lab
Department of Neurobiology, WIS
Using whiskers to gain insights into animal behaviour and motor control
Lecture
Monday, October 16, 2017
Hour: 14:30
Location:
Nella and Leon Benoziyo Building for Brain Research
Using whiskers to gain insights into animal behaviour and motor control
Dr. Robyn A. Grant
Conservation, Evolution and Behaviour Research Group
Division of Biology and Conservation Ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Mammalian whiskers and avian rictal bristles come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Indeed, one of the most striking facial features in all mammals (excluding higher primates and humans) is the presence of whiskers. They are deployed in a wide range of tasks and environments. For example, rodents may use their whiskers to guide arboreal locomotion, whilst seals use theirs to track hydrodynamic trails of vortices shed by the fish upon which they prey (Gläser et al, 2010). Certainly, the evolution of the sense of touch is a recognised cornerstone in mammalian evolution, driving brain complexity and behavioural flexibility. While the whisker system is an established model for sensory information processing, advances in measuring whisker behaviours suggests that whisker movements are also useful for measuring aspects of motor control. Many "whisker specialists" including rodents and pinnipeds employ their whiskers by moving them actively, and all mammals (and even some birds) share a similar muscle architecture that drives the movement of the whiskers. Certainly, changes in whisker movements can indicate a loss of motor control and coordination. In this talk I will consider the anatomy and morphology of whiskers, and consider their function in a range of different species. I will suggest how whisker movements may have evolved, and how they are very important for whisker specialists.
Applying epigenetics to the study of trauma in the first and second generation
Lecture
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Hour: 10:30
Location:
Nella and Leon Benoziyo Building for Brain Research
Applying epigenetics to the study of trauma in the first and second generation
Prof. Rachel Yehuda
Director, Traumatic Stress Studies Division
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NYC
A phylogenetic approach to decision making
Lecture
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Nella and Leon Benoziyo Building for Brain Research
A phylogenetic approach to decision making
Prof. Thomas Boraud, MD PhD
Directeur de Recherche CNRS,
University of Bordeaux
Pages
All years
All events, All years
There are no events to display