Seminar/Talk Calendar Spring 2016

Transcription

1 Seminar/Talk Calendar Spring 2016 Tuesday, February 2 nd McKell Carston, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder Neural Studies of Social Function and Dysfunction in Game Play The ability to consider thoughts of others is a crucial component of our every day decision making and psychological health. We ask participants to play games with each other during fmri to better understand the neural mechanisms that support higher-order social cognition and its influences on decision making in healthy and disordered populations. I will discuss our nexus model, a neural model for how the brain represents the thoughts of others and its implications for disease. In particular, the nexus model predicts a mechanism by which social cognition may be co-opted to represent special interests in individuals with autism. I will present early support for the hypothesis that in autism, neural substrates that normally respond when considering the thoughts of another human instead respond more strongly during game play with a computer. (For additional information, please contact Serge Campeau at: Serge.campeau@colorado.edu)

2 Tuesday, February 16 th John Gabrieli, Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT Prediction as a Humanitarian and Pragmatic Contribution from Human Cognitive Neuroscience Neuroimaging has greatly enhanced the cognitive neuroscience understanding of the human brain and its variation across individuals (neurodiversity) in both health and disease. Such progress has not yet, however, propelled changes in educational or medical practices that improve people s lives. We review neuroimaging findings in which initial brain measures (neuromarkers) are correlated with or predict future (1) education, learning, and performance in children and adults; (2) criminality; (3) health-related behaviors; and (4) responses to pharmacological or behavioral treatments. Neuromarkers often provide better predictions (neuroprognosis), alone or in combination with other measures, than traditional behavioral measures. With further advances in study designs and analyses, neuromarkers may offer opportunities to personalize educational and clinical practices that lead to better outcomes for people.

3 Tuesday, March 1 st Pei-San Tsai, Chair and Professor, Department of Integrative Physiology, CU- Boulder Postnatal Plasticity in the Reproductive Brain My laboratory is interested in a small population of neurons that secretes a critical reproductive hormone called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). Mutations on several developmental genes compromise the integrity of the GnRH system and lead to partial or complete infertility. Excitingly, our recent data suggest that the adult mammalian GnRH system made vulnerable by some of these mutations remains remarkably plastic; it can respond robustly and positively to specific environmental cues, leading to the full restoration of the organism s reproductive capacity. Our studies provide proof for an environment-induced plasticity previously thought to be limited in the adult reproductive brain. Further, they may provide important clues on how to exploit this plasticity to improve the reproductive health of diseased humans via environmental or drug interventions.

4 Tuesday, March 15 th Bradley Postle, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Visual Attention and Working Memory Working memory is of central importance for high-level cognition in the primate. My lab takes a brute-force approach to studying 'how working memory works' -- with brain imaging and brain stimulation methods -- and have found ourselves moving increasingly "upstream", away from the prefrontal cortex and toward the thalamocortical circuitry that underlies visual perception. We're working with the idea that visuospatial attention and, therefore, working memory, may be accomplished via the hijacking of the oscillatory dynamics that are fundamental to mammalian sensory systems.

5 Tuesday, April 5 th Manisha Patel, Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Cross-talk between seizure-induced oxidative stress and inflammation Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress are hallmarks of various neurological diseases including epilepsy. However, whether and how the redox processes control seizure-induced neuroinflammation is poorly explored. Studies in our laboratory suggest a cross-talk exists between seizure-induced oxidative stress and inflammation. My talk will discuss the therapeutic strategies to control seizure-induced neuroinflammation by altering redox status.

6 Tuesday, April 19 th Kim Huhman, Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University Winners and Losers: Neurobiology of Behavioral Responses to Social Conflict Social stress in the home, workplace or school is prevalent in today s society. Disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression and social anxiety disorder can be caused or exacerbated by social stress, and existing treatment options are not always effective in providing relief for these disorders. Our laboratory studies a behavioral response to social stress in Syrian hamsters, which we have termed conditioned defeat, wherein a brief exposure to social stress dramatically changes ongoing social behavior such that a defeated hamster no longer displays species-typical territorial aggression but instead produces only submissive and defensive behaviors even toward a non-threatening conspecific. The goal of our research is to characterize the neural circuit that mediates conditioned defeat and to identify the neurochemical and molecular changes that mediate this behavioral switch from aggression to submission.