ICLM Journal Club
This Week
24 April 2015
Time: 09:30 am
Place : Gonda 2nd Floor Conference Room
Title: Some Observations on Biological Noise
Speaker: Walt Babiec (O'Dell Lab)
Behavioral and anatomical studies support a functional segmentation between dorsal and ventral hippocampus. The dorsal (posterior in primates) hippocampus performs primarily cognitive functions. The ventral (anterior in primates) relates to stress, emotion, and affect. Perhaps to help in mediating these different roles, Schaffer collateral (SC) fiber synapses onto pyramidal cells (PCs) in the CA1 region of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus exhibit striking differences in both short-term and long-term plasticity. Importantly, evoked and spontaneous synaptic transmission may involve distinct molecular mechanisms, pools of presynaptic vesicles, and postsynaptic receptors. For this reason, we’ve been examining evoked and spontaneous transmission at SC-PC excitatory synapses in CA1 of dorsal and ventral hippocampus to determine whether the properties of spontaneous transmitter release also differ along the septotemporal axis of the hippocampus. Given the robust differences in short-term plasticity at excitatory synapses in the CA1 region of dorsal and ventral hippocampus, we’ve been particularly interested in examining whether the higher probability of transmitter release at ventral synapses (suggested by reduced paired-pulse facilitation compared to dorsal hippocampus) is associated with higher levels of spontaneous transmitter release. I’ll be talking about some observations we’ve found so far.
Background Material:
Fanselow & Dong: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627309009477
Kavalali: http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v16/n1/full/nrn3875.html
Kaeser & Regehr: http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-physiol-021113-170338?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed&
About Us
Introduction
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory (ICLM) is a multidisciplinary center of UCLA labs devoted to understanding the neural basis of learning and memory and its disorders. This will require a unified approach across different levels of analysis, including;
1. Elucidating the molecular cellular and systems mechanisms that allow neurons and synapses to undergo the long-term changes that ultimately correspond to 'neural memories'.
2. Understanding how functional dynamics and computations emerge from complex circuits of neurons, and how plasticity governs these processes.
3. Describing the neural systems in which different forms of learning and memory take place, and how these systems interact to ultimately generate behavior and cognition.
History of ICLM
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory formally LMP started in its current form in 1998, and has served as a platform for many interactions and collaborations within UCLA. A key event organized by the group is the weekly ICLM Journal Club. For more than 10 years, graduate students, postdocs, principal investigators, and invited speakers have presented on topics ranging from the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, through computational models of learning, to behavior and cognition. Dean Buonomano oversees the ICLM journal club with help of student/post doctoral organizers. For other events organized by ICLM go to http://www.iclm.ucla.edu/Events.html.
Current Organizers:
Walt Babiec (O'Dell Lab) & Helen Motanis (Buonomano Lab)
Current Faculty Advisor:
Past Organizers:
i) Anna Matynia(Aug 2004 - Jun 2008) (Silva Lab)
ii) Robert Brown (Aug 2008 - Jun 2009) (Balleine Lab)
iii) Balaji Jayaprakash (Aug 2008 - Nov 2011) (Silva Lab)
iv) Justin Shobe & Thomas Rogerson (Dec 2011 - June 2013) (Silva Lab)
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