BMI SPECIAL SEMINAR // Neural circuitry for context-dependent behavior and learning
Event details
Date | 11.01.2018 |
Hour | 15:00 › 16:00 |
Speaker | Kishore Kuchibhotla, Dpt.of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA |
Location | |
Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract: Sensory stimuli convey critical information about various types of opportunities and threats, including access to nourishment, the presence of predators, or the needs of infants. The same sensory stimulus, however, can have different interpretations based on learned associations and the contexts within which it is presented. How does the brain enable such interpretation of sensory cues based on behavioral context? A major challenge in neural systems is to provide logic to complex neural dynamics. In this talk, I will show how parallel processing of cholinergic modulation by diverse cortical interneurons enables the same sensory stimuli to trigger different behaviors depending on context. Surprisingly, excitatory synaptic inputs themselves are only modestly affected by context. Instead, during active engagement, cholinergic input co-activates multiple interneurons thereby adjusting inhibitory synaptic inputs and consequently modulating neuronal output. A network model captured these dynamics across neuronal subtypes only when neuromodulation coincidently drove inhibitory and disinhibitory circuit elements, ruling out either as sole computational responses to cholinergic modulation. I will finally present preliminary data and modeling on how context shapes the learning process itself.
Short Biography: Kishore is an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Departments of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Neuroscience (circuits.jhu.edu). He earned bachelor degrees in Physics and Brain/Cognitive Science at MIT. He went on to earn his PhD in Biophysics at Harvard University under the mentorship of Drs. Brian Bacskai and Bradley Hyman. Kishore completed his postdoctoral work at NYU with Dr. Robert Froemke.
Short Biography: Kishore is an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Departments of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Neuroscience (circuits.jhu.edu). He earned bachelor degrees in Physics and Brain/Cognitive Science at MIT. He went on to earn his PhD in Biophysics at Harvard University under the mentorship of Drs. Brian Bacskai and Bradley Hyman. Kishore completed his postdoctoral work at NYU with Dr. Robert Froemke.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- EPFL SV BMI Host : Pavan Ramdya