Seminar April 11 - Shona Chattarji

Shona Chattarji, PhD (National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India)

Synaptic plasticity in the amygdala: implications for stress and developmental disorders.

Room: 611HN, 12-1pm

New PAPER: Mixed selectivity encoding and action selection in the prefrontal cortex during threat assessment

Grunfeld I.S., Likhtik E. (2018) Mixed selectivity encoding and action selection in the prefrontal cortex during threat assessment. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 49:108-115. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2018.01.008

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) regulates expression of emotional behavior. The mPFC combines multivariate information from its inputs, and depending on the imminence of threat, activates downstream networks that either increase or decrease the expression of anxiety-related motor behavior and autonomic activation. Here, we selectively highlight how subcortical input to the mPFC from two example structures, the amygdala and ventral hippocampus, help shape mixed selectivity encoding and action selection during emotional processing. We outline a model where prefrontal subregions modulate behavior along orthogonal motor dimensions, and exhibit connectivity that selects for expression of one behavioral strategy while inhibiting the other..

October 4: Science, Policy and Populism: The Obama Years and Beyond

Kei Koizumi and Mike Lubell will lead a conversation at The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College on the subject of threats to and opportunities for the science community in 2017. Oct.4, 6pm. RSVP here. 

Kei Koizumi is a former Assistant Director for Federal Research and Development and Senior Advisor to the Director for the National Science and Technology Council under President Obama. 

Dr. Mike Lubell directed the Washington DC Office of Public Affairs of the American Physical Society for 22 years and is the Mark W. Zemansky Professor of Physics at City College, CUNY.  Dr. Lubell is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

The Roosevelt House: 47-49 East 65th St., between Park and Madison Ave.

KoizumiLubell_RooseveltHouse.jpg

Biology Seminar 9/18 - Asohan Amarasingham

I'm happy to host Asohan Amarasingham (Math. Dept., City College, CUNY) at the Biology Seminar on September 18th. Han's work beautifully emphasizes that neurophysiological recordings should be critically analyzed before we jump to conclusions.

Talk title: Interpreting variation across trials in neurophysiology

Room 926 Hunter North, 12-1pm

News and Views

Our News and Views piece discussing two new papers, one from Ofer Yizhar's lab (Klavir et. al.), and one from Kay Tye's lab (Burgos-Robles et. al.) is out in the June issue of Nature Neuroscience. Both groups looked at amygdala driven encoding in the prefrontal cortex in conditions of high/low threat and reward. 

Monday, May 15 - Stress and Resilience Conference at Hunter

We will be presenting data at the Stress and Resilience Conference at Hunter. There is a fantastic speaker lineup plus data blitz and poster sessions. This promises to be a terrific day!

Registration is free

Monday, May 15, 2017

9:00-6:00

The Kaye Playhouse, Hunter College

695 Park Ave., 68th St. b/t Park and Lexington Avenues

(Sponsored by Center for Translational and Basic Research, Clinical & Translational Science Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, Hunter College School of Nursing, Cornell University Cooperative Extension in NYC, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Hopsital for Special Surgery). 

 

Biology Seminar, May 8, 12pm

P'ng Loke (NYU School of Medicine)

Regulation of Intestinal Inflammation by Helminths and the Gut Microbiota

(or, all you Ever wanted to know about Worms!!)

Rm. 926HN