Revision as of 19:59, 18 November 2015

This Week

Kostya Bakhurin

Kostya Bakhurin from the Masmanidis lab will be presenting the following paper:

Title: 'Encoding of action by the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum'

Authors: 'David J. Herzfeld, Yoshiko Kojima, Robijanto Soetedjo & Reza Shadmehr'

Abstract: Execution of accurate eye movements depends critically on the cerebellum, suggesting that the major output neurons of the cerebellum, Purkinje cells, may predict motion of the eye. However, this encoding of action for rapid eye movements (saccades) has remained unclear: Purkinje cells show little consistent modulation with respect to saccade amplitude or direction, and critically, their discharge lasts longer than the duration of a saccade. Here we analysed Purkinje-cell discharge in the oculomotor vermis of behaving rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and found neurons that increased or decreased their activity during saccades. We estimated the combined effect of these two populations via their projections to the caudal fastigial nucleus, and uncovered a simple-spike population response that precisely predicted the real-time motion of the eye. When we organized the Purkinje cells according to each cell’s complex-spike directional tuning, the simple-spike population response predicted both the real-time speed and direction of saccade multiplicatively via a gain field. This suggests that the cerebellum predicts the real-time motion of the eye during saccades via the combined inputs of Purkinje cells onto individual nucleus neurons. A gain-field encoding of simple spikes emerges if the Purkinje cells that project onto a nucleus neuron are not selected at random but share a common complex-spike property.

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:

Dean Buonomano

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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