Lectures (Alphabetical order)
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Abraham,N.M., Spors,H., Carleton,A., Margrie,T.W., Kuner,T., and
Schaefer,A.T. (2004). Maintaining accuracy at the expense of speed:
stimulus similarity defines odor discrimination time in mice. Neuron 44,
865-876.
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Isaacson,J.S. and Strowbridge,B.W. (1998). Olfactory reciprocal
synapses: dendritic signaling in the CNS. Neuron 1998 Apr; 20,
749-761.
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Uchida,N. and Mainen,Z.F. (2003). Speed and accuracy of
olfactory discrimination in the rat. Nat Neurosci 6, 1224-1229.
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Shimshek,D.R., Bus,T., Kim,J., Mihaljevic,A., Mack,V., Seeburg,P.H.,
Sprengel,R., and Schaefer,A.T. (2005). Enhanced odor discrimination and
impaired olfactory memory by spatially controlled switch of AMPA
receptors. PLoS Biol 3, e354.
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Urban,N.N. (2002). Lateral inhibition in the olfactory bulb and in
olfaction. Physiol Behav 77, 607-612.
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Isaacson,J.S. (2001). Mechanisms governing dendritic gamma-aminobutyric
acid (GABA) release in the rat olfactory bulb. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
98, 337-342.
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Margrie,T.W. and Schaefer,A.T. (2003). Theta oscillation coupled spike
latencies yield computational vigour in a mammalian sensory system. J
Physiol 546, 363-374.
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Rinberg,D., Koulakov,A., and Gelperin,A. (2006). Speed-accuracy
tradeoff in olfaction. Neuron 51, 351-358.
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Schaefer,A.T. and Margrie,T.W. (2007). Spatiotemporal representations
in the olfactory system. Trends Neurosci 30, 92-100.
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Schoppa,N.E. and Urban,N.N. (2003). Dendritic processing within
olfactory bulb circuits. Trends Neurosci 26, 501-506.
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Yokoi,M., Mori,K., and Nakanishi,S. (1995). Refinement of odor molecule
tuning by dendrodendritic synaptic inhibition in the olfactory bulb.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 92, 3371-3375.
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Sheng M, Hoogenraad CC, The postsynaptic architecture of excitatory synapses: a more quantitative view. Annu Rev Biochem, 76; 823-47, 2007.
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Kessels HW, Malinow R, Synaptic AMPA receptor plasticity and behavior, Neuron. 2009 Feb 12;61(3):340-50.
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Masugi-Tokita M, Shigemoto R,. High-resolution quantitative visualization of receptors at central synapses. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 17:387-93, 2007.
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Kawakami R, Shinohara Y, Kato Y, Sugiyama H, Shigemoto R, Ito I. Asymmetrical allocation of NMDA receptor ε2 subunits in hippocampal circuitry. Science, 300, 990-994, 2003.
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Shinohara Y, Hirase H, Watanabe M, Itakura M, Takahashi M, Shigemoto R, Left-right asymmetry of the hippocampal synapses with differential subunit allocation of glutamate receptors, Proc. Natl. Aca. Sci. USA, 105:19498-503, 2008.
| Speaker | Dr. James Bower (University of Texas, San Antonio) (Neuro-Brain SuperComputing Whorkshop 2010) |
| Title | What does the cerebellum do, and how does it do it |
| Abstract | "In the back of our skulls, perched upon the brain stem under the overarching mantle of the great hemispheres of the cerebrum, is a baseball-sized, bean-shaped lump of gray and white brain tissue. This is the cerebellum, the 'lesser brain'." So began, somewhat inauspiciously, an article on the cerebellum published by Ray S. Snider in Scientific American in 1958. That introduction continued, "In contrast to the cerebrum, where men have sought and found the centers of so many vital mental activities, the cerebellum remains a region of subtle and tantalizing mystery, its function hidden from investigators." By the time the second Scientific American article on the cerebellum appeared 17 years later, the author, Rodolfo R. Llinas stated, "There is no longer any doubt that the cerebellum is a central control point for the organization of movement". Recently, however, the cerebellum's function has again become the subject of considerable debate. Human brain imaging studies have found that the human cerebellum is active during a wide range of activities that are not directly related to movement. At the same time psychophysical studies have revealed that damage to specific areas of the cerebellum can cause unanticipated impairments of non-motor functions. These results are now being interpreted to suggest that the cerebellum may play a significant role in an ever widening set of brain functions including: short-term memory, attention, impulse control, emotion, planning and scheduling mental activities, higher cognition and perhaps even conditions such as schizophrenia and autism. The cerebellum has once again become an area of "tantalizing mystery." It is the premise of Dr. Bower's approach to understanding cerebellar function that, ultimately, the answer to the question "what does the cerebellum do” will be determined by understanding how and what its neurons compute, and how that computational influences neural processing in other regions of the brain. Here too the cerebellum is a bit embarrassing for neurobiologists as we have known the basic anatomical structure of the cerebellum for more than 100 years, but fundamental questions regarding the physiological relationships between its neurons are still being hotly debated. In this interactive dialog, Dr. Bower will start with a discussion of current beliefs with respect to the anatomical and physiological relationships between cerebellar neurons, and then show how his own model driven research has suggested that those beliefs must also be modified. We will then consider the implications of these changes for cerebellar function as a whole, and then consider new supportive evidence from human imaging and psychophysical results. |
| References | Recommended Read: |
| Speaker | Dr. Andreas Schaefer (Max-Planck Institute) |
| Title | Cellular mechanisms regulating behaviour: Inhibition in the olfactory bulb and fast odor discrimination in mice |
| Abstract | Measurements of reaction times are a sensitive behavioural readout in both human and animal psychophysics. Here, I will discuss such psychophysical experiments for the sense of smell in mice, where one finds that odor discrimination is fast but speed critically depends on task difficulty. What are the cellular mechanisms involved in during this time-dependent process? In my talk I will focus on inhibitory mechanisms within the olfactory bulb, the first processing structure of the olfactory system. Generally, local inhibitory circuits are thought to shape neuronal information processing in various parts of the central nervous system, but it remains unclear how specific properties of inhibitory neuronal interactions translate into behavioral performance. In the olfactory bulb, inhibition of principal neurons may contribute to odor discrimination behavior by refining neuronal representations of odors. Employing a combination of classical transgenic techniques and virus-mediated gene ablation, we show that selective deletion of the fast, AMPA-type glutamate receptor subunit GluA2 in inhibitory neurons boosted synaptic Ca2+ influx, thus increasing inhibition of mitral cells. On a behavioral level, discrimination of similar odor mixtures was accelerated. In contrast, selective removal of NMDA receptors slowed discrimination of similar odors. These results demonstrate that inhibition of principal neurons controlled by interneuron glutamate receptors results in fast and accurate discrimination of similar odors. Thus, spatio-temporally defined molecular perturbations of olfactory bulb interneurons directly link stimulus-similarity, neuronal processing time and discrimination behavior to synaptic inhibition. |
| References | Recommended Read: |
| Speaker | Dr. Ryuichi Shigemoto (National Institute of Physiological Sciences) (Neuro-Brain SuperComputing Whorkshop 2010) |
| Title | Glutamate receptors: Their localization, function, and roles in physiological learning processes |
| Abstract | Glutamate receptors serve as key molecules for synaptic plasticity such as long-term potentiation and depression, which are believed to underlie various types of physiological learning processes. Although many lines of evidence obtained with in vitro studies and knock out mice support essential roles of NMDA- and AMPA-type glutamate receptor subunits in synaptic plasticity and learning, we have rather sparse evidence demonstrating what kind of alteration occurs in vivo in localization and function of glutamate receptors and synapses during physiological learning. I will introduce a newly developed quantitative freeze-fracture replica immunolabeling and dynamic changes of synapses and synaptic receptors detected with this and conventional electron microscopic methods after physiological spatial and motor learning, and discuss about roles of glutamate receptors in physiological learning processes. |
| References | Recommended Read: |