Dec
2
Wed
Sikoya Ashburn, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title: “Cerebellar involvement in developmental dyslexia”
Natalia Sánchez, PhD
Assistant Professor of Research, Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California
Title: “It pays to be asymmetric: What we have learned from assessing the energetics of gait adaptation”
Zoom information for these talks can be found in the email announcements or you can reach out to Andreea Bostan at acb42@pitt.edu.
The CNBC is hosting an inaugural Early Career Research (ECR) Seminar Series. This series features traditionally underrepresented and minority neuroscientists at early career stages (senior graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-stage faculty), who are actively conducting exciting work in fields relevant to the CNBC community. A main goal of the seminar series is to create a platform for outstanding young scientists from diverse backgrounds to share their research and network with the CNBC community.
Because of COVID-19, Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 Sessions will be virtual. Each session will feature a 30-minute talk from a trainee and a 30-minute talk from an early-career faculty speaker.
Organizing Committee:
- Susanne Ahmari, MD, PhD – Associate Professor, Pitt Psychiatry
- Andreea Bostan, PhD – Research Assistant Professor, Pitt Neurobiology
- Kate Hong, PhD – Assistant Professor, CMU Biological Sciences & CMNI
- Millie Rincon-Cortes, PhD – Research Assistant Professor, Pitt Neuroscience
- Afonso Silva, PhD – Professor, Pitt Neurobiology
- Sierra Stringfield, PhD – Postdoctoral Fellow, Pitt Psychiatry
- Gelsy Torres-Ovideo, PhD – Associate Professor, Pitt Bioengineering
- Sossena Wood, PhD – Postdoctoral Fellow, CMU Biomedical Engineering
- Timothy Verstynen, PhD – Associate Professor, CMU Psychology & CMNI
Dec
3
Thu
For the zoom link to this talk, please contact dorney@cmu.edu or cdanner@andrew.cmu.edu.
Michael Yartsev, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology and Engineering
Robertson Investigator, New York Stem Cell Foundation
Helen Wills Institute of Neuroscience Graduate Program
UC Berkeley Biophysics Graduate Program
UC Berkeley-UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering
University of California at Berkeley
Thursday, December 3, 2020 at 4:00pm E.T.
Studying the Neural basis of Complex Spatial, Social and Acoustic Behaviors – in Freely Behaving and Flying Bats
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Our lab seeks to understand the neural basis of complex spatial, acoustic and social behaviors in mammals. To do so, we take a neuroethological approach that leverages the specialization of the bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) for these behaviors in order to elucidate their underlying neural computations. In the spatial domain, we take advantage of the bat’s ability to elegantly navigate during high-speed flight and under varying levels of spatial complexities. In the social-acoustic domain, we utilize the bat’s social communication signals to understand how these are learned and later used during natural group social interactions. In parallel, we have pioneered a suite of cutting-edge technologies that make it possible to study the behavior and neural circuits in freely behaving and flying bats to examine these systems in a way not previously possible. In this talk, I provide an overview of some of the research topics our lab has been working on over the past few years and also emphasizing some of the future directions in which the lab is heading.
Dec
9
Wed
Bianca Jones Marlin, PhD
Assistant Professor
Columbia University
Talk title TBA
Dec
10
Thu
Marina R. Picciotto, Ph.D.
Charles BG Murphy Professor in Psychiatry and Deputy Chair for Basic Science, Professor of Neuroscience, of Pharmacology, and in the Child Study Center
Yale University
will present the
Andrew Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences Lecture
Thursday, December 10, 2020
4:00 pm
Register Here: https://cmu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_x1nfaYTLRO6nG4khXMi7dw
Acetylcholine as a neuromodulator: ACh signaling in the basolateral amygdala at baseline and in reward learning
Abstract: The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is critical for associating initially neutral cues with appetitive and aversive stimuli and receives dense neuromodulatory acetylcholine (ACh) projections. We measured BLA ACh signaling and principal neuron activity in mice during cue-reward learning using a fluorescent ACh sensor and calcium indicators. We found that ACh levels and activity of nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) cholinergic terminals in the BLA (NBM-BLA) increased sharply in response to reward-related events and shifted as mice learned the tone-reward contingency. BLA principal neuron activity followed reward retrieval and moved to the reward-predictive tone after task acquisition. Optical stimulation of cholinergic NBM-BLA terminal fibers during cue-reward learning led to more rapid learning of the cue-reward contingency. These results indicate that BLA ACh signaling carries important information about salient events in cue-reward learning and provides a framework for understanding how ACh signaling contributes to shaping BLA responses to emotional stimuli.
Bio: Marina R. Picciotto is the Charles BG Murphy Professor in Psychiatry and Deputy Chair for Basic Science, Professor of Neuroscience, of Pharmacology and in the Child Study Center at Yale University. Dr. Picciotto’s laboratory studies the function of acetylcholine and its receptors in the brain, including research related to addiction, depression, learning and appetite. Her work spans molecular genetic, biochemical, cell biological, anatomical, electrophysiological, behavioral and human studies, highlighting her philosophy that strong basic neuroscience can be clinically relevant.
In her early work, Dr. Picciotto was one of the first to use genetic engineering to generate mice in which a behavioral phenotype relevant to psychiatric illness was evaluated, and her work on mice with manipulations of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors helped define the specific subtypes required for the initiation of nicotine addiction. These studies have helped established the connections between biochemistry of nicotinic receptors, and their roles in brain circuits and systems leading to clinically-relevant behaviors. Her ongoing work combines fundamental neuroscience with translational studies, and has identified abnormalities in the cholinergic system that occur in both rodent models of depression and humans with mood disorders. The studies performed in her laboratory have helped inform development of treatments for smoking cessation, as well as for psychiatric disorders that are often co-morbid with smoking.
Dr. Picciotto has served as a member of NIDA’s Scientific Council (2011-2014), as Treasurer of the Society for Neuroscience (2013) and as President of the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco (2018-2019). Dr. Picciotto has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, The Human Frontiers Science Program Organization 10th Anniversary Award, the Waletzky Prize for Research on Substance Abuse and the Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2012 and as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2014, where she served as Chair of the Section on Neuroscience from 2019-2020. Dr. Picciotto has served on a number of editorial boards and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Register Here: https://cmu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_x1nfaYTLRO6nG4khXMi7dw
Dec
16
Wed
Diego Szczupak, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pittsburgh
Title: “Callosal dysgenesis from mice to men”
Lauren Whitehurst, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky
Title: “Sleep’s restorative role for cognition”
Zoom information for these talks can be found in the email announcements or you can reach out to Andreea Bostan at acb42@pitt.edu.
The CNBC is hosting an inaugural Early Career Research (ECR) Seminar Series. This series features traditionally underrepresented and minority neuroscientists at early career stages (senior graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-stage faculty), who are actively conducting exciting work in fields relevant to the CNBC community. A main goal of the seminar series is to create a platform for outstanding young scientists from diverse backgrounds to share their research and network with the CNBC community.
Because of COVID-19, Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 Sessions will be virtual. Each session will feature a 30-minute talk from a trainee and a 30-minute talk from an early-career faculty speaker.
Organizing Committee:
- Susanne Ahmari, MD, PhD – Associate Professor, Pitt Psychiatry
- Andreea Bostan, PhD – Research Assistant Professor, Pitt Neurobiology
- Kate Hong, PhD – Assistant Professor, CMU Biological Sciences & CMNI
- Millie Rincon-Cortes, PhD – Research Assistant Professor, Pitt Neuroscience
- Afonso Silva, PhD – Professor, Pitt Neurobiology
- Sierra Stringfield, PhD – Postdoctoral Fellow, Pitt Psychiatry
- Gelsy Torres-Ovideo, PhD – Associate Professor, Pitt Bioengineering
- Sossena Wood, PhD – Postdoctoral Fellow, CMU Biomedical Engineering
- Timothy Verstynen, PhD – Associate Professor, CMU Psychology & CMNI
Jan
13
Wed
Anne Churchland, PhD
Associate Professor
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories
Single-trial neural dynamics are dominated by richly varied movements
Feb
17
Wed
Yi Zuo, PhD
Professor of MCD Biology
University of California, Santa Cruz
Experience-dependent synapse reorganization in the living brain
Feb
25
Thu
Sierra Stringfield, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh
Sade Spencer, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pharmacology, University of Minnesota
Zoom information for these talks can be found in the email announcements or you can reach out to Andreea Bostan at acb42@pitt.edu.
The CNBC is hosting an inaugural Early Career Research (ECR) Seminar Series. This series features traditionally underrepresented and minority neuroscientists at early career stages (senior graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-stage faculty), who are actively conducting exciting work in fields relevant to the CNBC community. A main goal of the seminar series is to create a platform for outstanding young scientists from diverse backgrounds to share their research and network with the CNBC community.
Because of COVID-19, Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 Sessions will be virtual. Each session will feature a 30-minute talk from a trainee and a 30-minute talk from an early-career faculty speaker.
Organizing Committee:
- Susanne Ahmari, MD, PhD – Associate Professor, Pitt Psychiatry
- Andreea Bostan, PhD – Research Assistant Professor, Pitt Neurobiology
- Kate Hong, PhD – Assistant Professor, CMU Biological Sciences & CMNI
- Millie Rincon-Cortes, PhD – Research Assistant Professor, Pitt Neuroscience
- Afonso Silva, PhD – Professor, Pitt Neurobiology
- Sierra Stringfield, PhD – Postdoctoral Fellow, Pitt Psychiatry
- Gelsy Torres-Ovideo, PhD – Associate Professor, Pitt Bioengineering
- Sossena Wood, PhD – Postdoctoral Fellow, CMU Biomedical Engineering
- Timothy Verstynen, PhD – Associate Professor, CMU Psychology & CMNI
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