All years
, All years
Principles of functional circuit connectivity: Insights from the zebrafish optic tectum
Lecture
Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Hour: 10:30
Location:
Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall
Principles of functional circuit connectivity: Insights from the zebrafish optic tectum
Prof. German Sumbre
École Normale Supérieure, France
Spontaneous neuronal activity in sensory brain regions is spatiotemporally structured, suggesting that this ongoing activity may have a functional role. Nevertheless, the neuronal interactions underlying these spontaneous activity patterns, and their biological relevance, remain elusive. We addressed these questions using two-photon and light-sheet Ca2+ imaging of intact zebrafish larvae to monitor the fine structure of the spontaneous activity in the zebrafish optic tectum (the fish's main visual center. We observed that the spontaneous activity was organized in topographically compact assemblies, grouping functionally similar neurons rather than merely neighboring ones, reflecting the tectal retinotopic map. Assemblies represent all-or-none-like sub-networks shaped by competitive dynamics, mechanisms advantageous for visual detection in noisy natural environments. Furthermore, the spontaneous activity structure also emerged in “naive” tecta (tecta of enucleated larvae before the retina connected to the tectum). We thus suggest that the formation of the tectal network circuitry is genetically prone for its functional role. This capability is an advantageous developmental strategy for the prompt execution of vital behaviors, such as escaping predators or catching prey, without requiring prior visual experience.
Mutant zebrafish larvae for the mecp2 gene display an abnormal spontaneous tectal activity, thus representing an ideal control to shed light on the biological relevance of the tectal functional connectivity. We found that the tectal assemblies limit the span of the visual responses, probably improving visual spatial resolution.
Yes I Can ! Neural indicators of self-views and their motivational value
Lecture
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Yes I Can ! Neural indicators of self-views and their motivational value
Prof. Talma Hendler
Dept of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University
Ichilov Sagol Brain Institute Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
Positive view of oneself is central for social motivation and emotional well-being. Such views largely depend on the known positive-bias of social feedbacks, as well as on the value one gives to social attributes such as power or affiliation. Diminished positive self views are a common denominator in depression and social anxiety, suggesting a transdiagnostic biomarkers, yet its neural mechanism is unclear. My talk will describe a series of studies using multiscale imaging and behavioral accounts and their modeling to address the interaction between self related cognition, motivation and learning from experience.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Representation of 3D space in the mammalian brain: From 3D grid cells in flying bats to 3D perception in flying humans
Lecture
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Representation of 3D space in the mammalian brain: From 3D grid cells in flying bats to 3D perception in flying humans
Gily Ginosar
Neurobiology Dept, WIS
While our world is three-dimensional (3D), spatial perception is most often studied in animals and humans navigating across 2D surfaces. I will present two cases in which the consideration of the 3D nature of the world has led us to surprising results. The first case regards the neural recording of mammalian grid cells. Grid cells that are recorded over 2D surfaces create a hexagonal-shaped repetitive lattice, which inspired many theoretical studies to investigate the pattern’s mechanism and function. Upon recording in bats flying through 3D space, we found that grid cells did not exhibit a hexagonal global lattice, but rather showed a local order – with grid-fields exhibiting fixed local distances. Our results in 3D strongly argue against most of the prevailing models of grid-cell function, and we suggest a unified model that explains the results in both 2D and 3D. The second case regards the perception of 3D space in humans. Different behavioral studies have shown contradicting evidence of human perception of 3D space being either isotropic or vertically compressed. We addressed this question using human experts in 3D motion and navigation – fighter pilots – studied in a flight simulator. We considered two aspects of the perception of 3D space: surrounding space and travelled space. We show that different aspects of the perception of space are shaped differently with experience: whereas the perception of the 3D surrounding space was vertically compressed in both expert and non-expert subjects, fighter pilots exhibited isotropic perception of travelled space, whereas non-expert subjects retained a distorted perception. Together, our research sheds light on the differences and similarities between the coding of 3D versus 2D space, in both animals and humans.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Synthetic and Natural Plasticity in the Auditory Cortex
Lecture
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Synthetic and Natural Plasticity in the Auditory Cortex
Prof. Adi Mizrahi
Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
We often study plasticity of highly synthetic environments that may not necessarily form the substrate of more realistic conditions. We study sensory systems using both synthetic and more natural forms of plasticity in hope to find common brain mechanisms. On one hand we study perceptual and category learning and on the other hand parental plasticity; both in the auditory and olfactory systems. Using mice we exploit the available experimental toolkit to reveal anatomical, physiological and behavioral manifestation of plasticity in both synthetic and more natural conditions. I will discuss our efforts to study auditory plasticity in the context of mother-infant bonding, an interaction that rapidly develops following parturition. Specifically, I will describe how pup vocalizations are represented in the brain of naïve mice and in mothers, when they first start caring for their newborn pups. I will also share our recent efforts to study perceptual and category learning of synthetic (both simple and complex) environments.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
The interaction of valence and information gain during learning, perception and decision-making
Lecture
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Hour: 11:00 - 12:30
Location:
The interaction of valence and information gain during learning, perception and decision-making
Ido Toren (PhD Thesis Defense)
Prof. Rony Paz Lab, Dept of Neurobiology
Decision making is a fundamental ability to human life. Even the simplest decision we make requires integration of multiple factors in our brain, such as prior knowledge, information from the environment, emotions and many more. Despite many years of research and numerous important and ground-breaking findings on how learning and decision-making are generated in our brain, a lot of knowledge is still required for a comprehensive understanding of it. My research initiated from the motivation to understand the unique contribution of valence (rewards and punishments) – when presented as feedback during learning – to perception and decision-making. For that purpose, I studied multiple groups of individuals under different experimental conditions created to elucidate behavioral and neural responses to rewards and punishments. I asked how prediction errors (PE, the difference between expected and received outcomes) bias the perception of time, and how valence and information from feedback, factors that are often indistinguishable, differently guide decision making in a multi-choice environment. Using functional MRI and computational models, I found that positive and negative PEs, known to drive learning, bias the perception of time in opposite directions. Positive PEs induce change in the perceived time so it seems longer compared to a neutral condition (no PE). In contrast, when a negative PE is detected, time is perceived to be shorter. My results identify the Putamen, a structure that receives dopaminergic projections and is involved in time perception, as the brain region that likely drives this bias and underlies the interaction between time perception and prediction-errors.
In addition, I demonstrated that knowing the outcome valence in advance can enable an information-based decision making, namely one that is not affected by the valence itself and is driven only by the information available in the environment. Because uncertainty regarding choice increases when more options are available to choose from, a ‘right’ feedback provides more information to the learning process, compared to a ‘wrong’ feedback. This was accompanied by a differential activation in the ACC, PFC and striatum. Importantly, in this context, punishment avoidance is equally rewarding, and indeed I found that choice behavior and the neural networks underlying choice and feedback processing are similar in the two scenarios – for punishments and rewards. Overall, my work develops and suggests computational and neural mechanisms for specific roles of the information carried by prediction-errors. These findings can enhance our understanding of the fundamental roles of valence and information gain during learning and decision making.
Zoom link to join: https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/92234357805?pwd=aVkrR21CSUVtVS9tSEJYRDkwOFRidz09
Meeting ID: 922 3435 7805
Password: 648092
Technologies for all-optical interrogation of neural circuits in behaving animalsTechnologies for all-optical interrogation of neural circuits in behaving animals
Lecture
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Technologies for all-optical interrogation of neural circuits in behaving animalsTechnologies for all-optical interrogation of neural circuits in behaving animals
Dr. Adam Packer
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
University of Oxford, UK
Neural circuits display complex spatiotemporal patterns of activity on the millisecond timescale during behavior. Understanding how these activity patterns drive behavior is a fundamental problem in neuroscience, and remains a major challenge due to the complexity of their spatiotemporal dynamics. The ability to manipulate activity in genetically defined sets of neurons on the millisecond timescale using optogenetics has provided a powerful new tool for making causal links between neuronal activity and behavior. I will discuss novel approaches that combine simultaneous two-photon calcium imaging and two-photon targeted optogenetic photostimulation with the use of a spatial light modulator (SLM) to provide ‘all-optical’ readout and manipulation of the same neurons in vivo. This approach enables reading and writing of activity in neural circuits with single-cell resolution and single action potential precision during behavior. I will describe the power, limitations and future potential of this approach; and discuss how it can be used to address many important problems in neuroscience, including transforming our search for the neural code and the links between neural circuit activity and behavior.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Neural mechanisms of aggression
Lecture
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Hour: 15:00 - 16:00
Location:
Neural mechanisms of aggression
Prof. Lin Dayu
Dept of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Physiology
New York University Grossman School of Medicine, USA
Aggression is an innate social behavior essential for competing for resources, securing mates, defending territory and protecting the safety of oneself and family. In the last decade, significant progress has been made towards an understanding of the neural circuit underlying aggression using a set of modern neuroscience tools. Here, I will talk about our recent progress in the study of aggression.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Using Deep Nets to Understand Visual Recognition in Mind and Brain
Lecture
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Hour: 15:00 - 16:00
Location:
Using Deep Nets to Understand Visual Recognition in Mind and Brain
Prof. Nancy Kanwisher
Dept of Neuroscience, Brain and Cognitive Sciences,
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, USA
In this talk I will describe two ongoing lines of work from my lab that use deep nets to better understand visual recognition and its neural and computational basis in the brain, by testing precise computational models against fMRI data from the ventral visual pathway, and by providing clues into why face recognition works the way it does in the human mind and brain.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Neuropixels probes - two stories about development and use
Lecture
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Hour: 12:30 - 13:30
Location:
Neuropixels probes - two stories about development and use
Dr. Michael Okun
Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour,
University of Leicester, UK
The first part of the presentation will describe the Neuropixels 2.0 probe, focusing on its ability to stably record from the same neurons across days and weeks in chronically implanted mice. The second part will describe the effects of psychedelic and intrinsic brain state transitions on the firing rates of neuronal populations, as revealed by high count Neuropixels recordings.
Zoom link:
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Prof. Ilan Lampl ilan.lampl@weizmann.ac.il tel: 3179
The Vagus Nerve and Physiology of Reward and Digestion
Lecture
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Hour: 15:00
Location:
The Vagus Nerve and Physiology of Reward and Digestion
Prof. Ivan E de Araujo
Neuroscience Dept, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
The presentation will discuss recent evidence supporting a role for the gut-brain axis in controlling brain circuits involved in reward. It will be argued that sensory neurons of vagus nerve function as reward neurons. Via defined brainstem targets, vagal signals dopaminergic brain reward circuits in midbrain. The mapping of these circuits opens a window into how signals generated by internal body organs give rise to motivated and emotional behaviors.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Pages
All years
, All years
Yes I Can ! Neural indicators of self-views and their motivational value
Lecture
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Yes I Can ! Neural indicators of self-views and their motivational value
Prof. Talma Hendler
Dept of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University
Ichilov Sagol Brain Institute Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
Positive view of oneself is central for social motivation and emotional well-being. Such views largely depend on the known positive-bias of social feedbacks, as well as on the value one gives to social attributes such as power or affiliation. Diminished positive self views are a common denominator in depression and social anxiety, suggesting a transdiagnostic biomarkers, yet its neural mechanism is unclear. My talk will describe a series of studies using multiscale imaging and behavioral accounts and their modeling to address the interaction between self related cognition, motivation and learning from experience.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Representation of 3D space in the mammalian brain: From 3D grid cells in flying bats to 3D perception in flying humans
Lecture
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Representation of 3D space in the mammalian brain: From 3D grid cells in flying bats to 3D perception in flying humans
Gily Ginosar
Neurobiology Dept, WIS
While our world is three-dimensional (3D), spatial perception is most often studied in animals and humans navigating across 2D surfaces. I will present two cases in which the consideration of the 3D nature of the world has led us to surprising results. The first case regards the neural recording of mammalian grid cells. Grid cells that are recorded over 2D surfaces create a hexagonal-shaped repetitive lattice, which inspired many theoretical studies to investigate the pattern’s mechanism and function. Upon recording in bats flying through 3D space, we found that grid cells did not exhibit a hexagonal global lattice, but rather showed a local order – with grid-fields exhibiting fixed local distances. Our results in 3D strongly argue against most of the prevailing models of grid-cell function, and we suggest a unified model that explains the results in both 2D and 3D. The second case regards the perception of 3D space in humans. Different behavioral studies have shown contradicting evidence of human perception of 3D space being either isotropic or vertically compressed. We addressed this question using human experts in 3D motion and navigation – fighter pilots – studied in a flight simulator. We considered two aspects of the perception of 3D space: surrounding space and travelled space. We show that different aspects of the perception of space are shaped differently with experience: whereas the perception of the 3D surrounding space was vertically compressed in both expert and non-expert subjects, fighter pilots exhibited isotropic perception of travelled space, whereas non-expert subjects retained a distorted perception. Together, our research sheds light on the differences and similarities between the coding of 3D versus 2D space, in both animals and humans.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Synthetic and Natural Plasticity in the Auditory Cortex
Lecture
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Synthetic and Natural Plasticity in the Auditory Cortex
Prof. Adi Mizrahi
Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
We often study plasticity of highly synthetic environments that may not necessarily form the substrate of more realistic conditions. We study sensory systems using both synthetic and more natural forms of plasticity in hope to find common brain mechanisms. On one hand we study perceptual and category learning and on the other hand parental plasticity; both in the auditory and olfactory systems. Using mice we exploit the available experimental toolkit to reveal anatomical, physiological and behavioral manifestation of plasticity in both synthetic and more natural conditions. I will discuss our efforts to study auditory plasticity in the context of mother-infant bonding, an interaction that rapidly develops following parturition. Specifically, I will describe how pup vocalizations are represented in the brain of naïve mice and in mothers, when they first start caring for their newborn pups. I will also share our recent efforts to study perceptual and category learning of synthetic (both simple and complex) environments.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
The interaction of valence and information gain during learning, perception and decision-making
Lecture
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Hour: 11:00 - 12:30
Location:
The interaction of valence and information gain during learning, perception and decision-making
Ido Toren (PhD Thesis Defense)
Prof. Rony Paz Lab, Dept of Neurobiology
Decision making is a fundamental ability to human life. Even the simplest decision we make requires integration of multiple factors in our brain, such as prior knowledge, information from the environment, emotions and many more. Despite many years of research and numerous important and ground-breaking findings on how learning and decision-making are generated in our brain, a lot of knowledge is still required for a comprehensive understanding of it. My research initiated from the motivation to understand the unique contribution of valence (rewards and punishments) – when presented as feedback during learning – to perception and decision-making. For that purpose, I studied multiple groups of individuals under different experimental conditions created to elucidate behavioral and neural responses to rewards and punishments. I asked how prediction errors (PE, the difference between expected and received outcomes) bias the perception of time, and how valence and information from feedback, factors that are often indistinguishable, differently guide decision making in a multi-choice environment. Using functional MRI and computational models, I found that positive and negative PEs, known to drive learning, bias the perception of time in opposite directions. Positive PEs induce change in the perceived time so it seems longer compared to a neutral condition (no PE). In contrast, when a negative PE is detected, time is perceived to be shorter. My results identify the Putamen, a structure that receives dopaminergic projections and is involved in time perception, as the brain region that likely drives this bias and underlies the interaction between time perception and prediction-errors.
In addition, I demonstrated that knowing the outcome valence in advance can enable an information-based decision making, namely one that is not affected by the valence itself and is driven only by the information available in the environment. Because uncertainty regarding choice increases when more options are available to choose from, a ‘right’ feedback provides more information to the learning process, compared to a ‘wrong’ feedback. This was accompanied by a differential activation in the ACC, PFC and striatum. Importantly, in this context, punishment avoidance is equally rewarding, and indeed I found that choice behavior and the neural networks underlying choice and feedback processing are similar in the two scenarios – for punishments and rewards. Overall, my work develops and suggests computational and neural mechanisms for specific roles of the information carried by prediction-errors. These findings can enhance our understanding of the fundamental roles of valence and information gain during learning and decision making.
Zoom link to join: https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/92234357805?pwd=aVkrR21CSUVtVS9tSEJYRDkwOFRidz09
Meeting ID: 922 3435 7805
Password: 648092
Technologies for all-optical interrogation of neural circuits in behaving animalsTechnologies for all-optical interrogation of neural circuits in behaving animals
Lecture
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Hour: 12:30
Location:
Technologies for all-optical interrogation of neural circuits in behaving animalsTechnologies for all-optical interrogation of neural circuits in behaving animals
Dr. Adam Packer
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
University of Oxford, UK
Neural circuits display complex spatiotemporal patterns of activity on the millisecond timescale during behavior. Understanding how these activity patterns drive behavior is a fundamental problem in neuroscience, and remains a major challenge due to the complexity of their spatiotemporal dynamics. The ability to manipulate activity in genetically defined sets of neurons on the millisecond timescale using optogenetics has provided a powerful new tool for making causal links between neuronal activity and behavior. I will discuss novel approaches that combine simultaneous two-photon calcium imaging and two-photon targeted optogenetic photostimulation with the use of a spatial light modulator (SLM) to provide ‘all-optical’ readout and manipulation of the same neurons in vivo. This approach enables reading and writing of activity in neural circuits with single-cell resolution and single action potential precision during behavior. I will describe the power, limitations and future potential of this approach; and discuss how it can be used to address many important problems in neuroscience, including transforming our search for the neural code and the links between neural circuit activity and behavior.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Neural mechanisms of aggression
Lecture
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Hour: 15:00 - 16:00
Location:
Neural mechanisms of aggression
Prof. Lin Dayu
Dept of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Physiology
New York University Grossman School of Medicine, USA
Aggression is an innate social behavior essential for competing for resources, securing mates, defending territory and protecting the safety of oneself and family. In the last decade, significant progress has been made towards an understanding of the neural circuit underlying aggression using a set of modern neuroscience tools. Here, I will talk about our recent progress in the study of aggression.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Using Deep Nets to Understand Visual Recognition in Mind and Brain
Lecture
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Hour: 15:00 - 16:00
Location:
Using Deep Nets to Understand Visual Recognition in Mind and Brain
Prof. Nancy Kanwisher
Dept of Neuroscience, Brain and Cognitive Sciences,
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT, USA
In this talk I will describe two ongoing lines of work from my lab that use deep nets to better understand visual recognition and its neural and computational basis in the brain, by testing precise computational models against fMRI data from the ventral visual pathway, and by providing clues into why face recognition works the way it does in the human mind and brain.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Neuropixels probes - two stories about development and use
Lecture
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Hour: 12:30 - 13:30
Location:
Neuropixels probes - two stories about development and use
Dr. Michael Okun
Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour,
University of Leicester, UK
The first part of the presentation will describe the Neuropixels 2.0 probe, focusing on its ability to stably record from the same neurons across days and weeks in chronically implanted mice. The second part will describe the effects of psychedelic and intrinsic brain state transitions on the firing rates of neuronal populations, as revealed by high count Neuropixels recordings.
Zoom link:
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Prof. Ilan Lampl ilan.lampl@weizmann.ac.il tel: 3179
The Vagus Nerve and Physiology of Reward and Digestion
Lecture
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Hour: 15:00
Location:
The Vagus Nerve and Physiology of Reward and Digestion
Prof. Ivan E de Araujo
Neuroscience Dept, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Institute
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
The presentation will discuss recent evidence supporting a role for the gut-brain axis in controlling brain circuits involved in reward. It will be argued that sensory neurons of vagus nerve function as reward neurons. Via defined brainstem targets, vagal signals dopaminergic brain reward circuits in midbrain. The mapping of these circuits opens a window into how signals generated by internal body organs give rise to motivated and emotional behaviors.
Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Neural correlates of future weight loss reveal a possible role for brain-gastric interactions
Lecture
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Hour: 12:30 - 13:30
Location:
Neural correlates of future weight loss reveal a possible role for brain-gastric interactions
Prof. Galia Avidan
Dept of Psychology
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Lifestyle dietary interventions are an essential practice in treating obesity, hence neural factors that may assist in predicting individual treatment success are of great significance. Here, in a prospective, open-label, three arms study, we examined the correlation between brain resting-state functional connectivity measured at baseline and weight loss following 6 months of lifestyle intervention in 92 overweight participants. We report a robust subnetwork composed mainly of sensory and motor cortical regions, whose edges correlated with future weight loss. This effect was found regardless of intervention group. Importantly, this main finding was further corroborated using a stringent connectivity-based prediction model assessed with cross-validation thus attesting to its robustness. The engagement of senso-motor regions in this subnetwork is consistent with the over-sensitivity to food cues theory of weight regulation. Finally, we tested an additional hypothesis regarding the role of brain-gastric interaction in this subnetwork, considering recent findings of a cortical network synchronized with gastric activity. Accordingly, we found a significant spatial overlap with the subnetwork reported in the present study. Moreover, power in the gastric basal electric frequency within our reported subnetwork negatively correlated with future weight loss. This finding was specific to the weight loss related subnetwork and to the gastric basal frequency. These findings should be further corroborated by combining direct recordings of gastric activity in future studies. Taken together, these intriguing results may have important implications for our understanding of the etiology of obesity and the mechanism of response to dietary intervention as well as to interoceptive perception.
Zoom link to join:
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068
Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070
Pages
All years
, All years
There are no events to display