2014

Current Issues in Neuroscience


The Program in Neuroscience and Education of the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences at Teachers College, Columbia University is pleased to announce a lecture series on current issues in neuroscience. Each week we will discuss a variety of topics on the frontiers of neuroscience, from neurological disorders to development and neuroimmunology. Some of the most accomplished investigators in neuroscience from top universities in the NYC area will be presenting new developments in their leading-edge research.

The lectures series is proudly co-sponsored by the Teachers College Vice President’s Diversity and Community Initiatives Grant Fund.

Below are links to each of the Spring 2014 Neuroscience Lectures at Teachers College, Columbia University. All lectures are recorded and will be posted for the Columbia University community as they become available.

 

When and Where

Mondays at 3pm, January 27-May 12, 2014

Cowin Center (147 Horace Mann Building)
Teachers College, Columbia University
525 W 120th Street
New York, New York 10027-6696
Directions

Free and Open to the Public 

Individuals with disabilities are invited to request reasonable accommodations. To request disability-related accommodations contact OASID at oasid@tc.columbia.edu, (212) 678-3689, (212) 678-3853 TTY, (646) 755-3144 video phone, as early as possible.

2014 Lecture Series


David Amodio
Motivated perception as self-regulation: Evidence from the brain and behavior

Dr. Amodio is part of the Social Neuroscience laboratory, were they focus in researching the roles of social cognition and emotion in the regulation of behavior, and the neural mechanisms underlying these processes. Much of his work examines these processes in the context of prejudice and stereotyping, although he also is interested in the areas of motivation and health psychology.

Recommendend Readings

  • Amodio, D. M. (2010). Can Neuroscience Advance Social Psychological Theory? Social Neuroscience for the Behavioral Social Psychologist. Social Cognition, 28(6), 695–716. doi:10.1521/soco.2010.28.6.695
  • Amodio, D. M. (2011). Self-regulation in intergroup relations: A social neuroscience framework. In A. Todorov, S. T. Fiske, and D. Prentice (Eds.) Social Neuroscience: Toward Understanding the Underpinnings of the Social Mind (pp. 101-122). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Amodio, D. M., & Hamilton, H. K. (2012). Intergroup anxiety effects on implicit racial evaluation and stereotyping. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 12(6), 1273–80. doi:10.1037/a0029016
  • Ratner, K. G., & Amodio, D. M. (2013). Seeing “us vs. them”: Minimal group effects on the neural encoding of faces. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(2), 298–301. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.10.017
Christopher Bergland
Superfluidity: Optimizing the brain's plasticity for a healthier life

Christopher is a world-class athlete, coach, author, and political activist. He is also a founding partner of City Coach and author of The Athlete's Way: Sweat and the Biology of Bliss (St. Martin's Press). Christopher’s goal is to bring everyone inside the athletic mindset and process of success in sports and competition.

 

Recommendend Readings

Frances Champagne
Epigenetic Plasticity in the Developing Brain

Dr. Champagne focuses her main research on how genetic and environmental factors interact to regulate maternal behavior; and how natural variations in this behavior can shape the behavioral development of offspring through epigenetic changes in gene expression in a brain region specific manner.

Recommendend Readings

  • Champagne, F. a. (2008). Epigenetic mechanisms and the transgenerational effects of maternal care. Frontiers in neuroendocrinology, 29(3), 386–97. doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2008.03.003
  • Danchin, É., Charmantier, A., Champagne, F. a, Mesoudi, A., Pujol, B., & Blanchet, S. (2011). Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution. Nature reviews. Genetics, 12(7), 475–86. doi:10.1038/nrg3028
  • Monk, C., Spicer, J., & Champagne, F. a. (2012). Linking prenatal maternal adversity to developmental outcomes in infants: the role of epigenetic pathways. Development and psychopathology, 24(4), 1361–76. doi:10.1017/S0954579412000764
Vincent Ferrera
Flexible decision-making in prefrontal cortex and dorsal striatum

Dr. Ferrera’s research interest focuses in the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive and behavioral flexibility, having the ability adapt to changing circumstances. The Ferrera laboratory uses neurophysiological and functional imaging approaches to understand how the brain weighs evidence, adjusts decision criteria, and evaluates reward outcomes. They are especially interested in the neural mechanisms by which reward influences attention, especially in the context of socially rewarding stimuli such as faces.

Recommendend Readings

  • Ferrera, V. P., Yanike, M., & Cassanello, C. (2009). Frontal eye field neurons signal changes in decision criteria. Nature Neuroscience, 12(11), 1458–1462. doi:10.1038/nn.2434
  • Grinband, J., Savitskaya, J., Wager, T. D., Teichert, T., Ferrera, V. P., & Hirsch, J. (2011). The dorsal medial frontal cortex is sensitive to time on task, not response conflict or error likelihood. NeuroImage, 57(2), 303–11. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.12.027
  • Teichert, T., Grinband, J., Hirsch, J., & Ferrera, V. P. (2010). Effects of heartbeat and respiration on macaque fMRI: implications for functional connectivity. Neuropsychologia, 48(7), 1886–94. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.11.026
David Friedman
Cognitive Aging of Episodic Memory

Dr. Friedman’s research interest lies in analyzing ERPs and performance measures to investigate the neurocognitive processes underlying everyday functions, such as memory encoding and retrieval and executive control. His approach bases on a lifespan data collection (children, adolescents, young and older adults). This method will aims to understand how these processes change throughout the life span in health and disease, and in elucidating their neural underpinnings.

Recommendend Readings

  • Friedman, D., Nessler, D., Cycowicz, Y. M., & Horton, C. (2009). Development of and change in cognitive control: a comparison of children, young adults, and older adults. Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 9(1), 91–102. doi:10.3758/CABN.9.1.91
  • Friedman, D., Nessler, D., & Johnson, R. (2007). Memory encoding and retrieval in the aging brain. Clinical EEG and neuroscience, 38(1), 2–7. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17319586
  • Squires-Wheeler, E., Friedman, D., Skodol, a E., & Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L. (1993). A longitudinal study relating P3 amplitude to schizophrenia spectrum disorders and to global personality functioning. Biological psychiatry, 33(11-12), 774–85. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8373915
Carl Hart
Beyond the Brain: Interactions between drugs and environmental factors

Dr. Hart’s major research focus is to understand complex interactions between drugs of abuse and the neurobiology and environmental factors that mediate human behavior and physiology. He states three major potential application of his work: 1) develop new theories about the neurochemical basis of several human behaviors; 2) inform public policy about the benefits and risks of drug use; and 3) guide the development of medications for drug abuse.

Recommendend Readings

  • Hart, C L, van Gorp, W., Haney, M., Foltin, R. W., & Fischman, M. W. (2001). Effects of acute smoked marijuana on complex cognitive performance. Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 25(5), 757–65. doi:10.1016/S0893-133X(01)00273-1
  • Hart, Carl L, Haney, M., Vosburg, S. K., Rubin, E., & Foltin, R. W. (2008). Smoked cocaine self-administration is decreased by modafinil. Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 33(4), 761–8. doi:10.1038/sj.npp.1301472
  • Kirkpatrick, M. G., Metcalfe, J., Greene, M. J., & Hart, C. L. (2008). Effects of intranasal methamphetamine on metacognition of agency. Psychopharmacology, 197(1), 137–44. doi:10.1007/s00213-007-1018-2
John Martin
Activity-based therapies for repair of the corticospinal system injured during development

Dr. Martin focuses in researching spinal cord injury and the development of motor behavior. Concentrating in developing new understanding of the connections between the brain and spinal cord that control movement addressing brain development as well as recovery of movement function after brain or spinal injury, translating it to therapies for humans with mobility impairments.

Recommendend Readings

  • Carmel, J. B., Kimura, H., Berrol, L. J., & Martin, J. H. (2013). Motor cortex electrical stimulation promotes axon outgrowth to brain stem and spinal targets that control the forelimb impaired by unilateral corticospinal injury. The European journal of neuroscience, 37(7), 1090–102. doi:10.1111/ejn.12119
  • Friel, K., Chakrabarty, S., Kuo, H.-C., & Martin, J. (2012). Using motor behavior during an early critical period to restore skilled limb movement after damage to the corticospinal system during development. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 32(27), 9265–76. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1198-12.2012
  • Martin, J. H. (2012). Systems neurobiology of restorative neurology and future directions for repair of the damaged motor systems. Clinical neurology and neurosurgery, 114(5), 515–23. doi:10.1016/j.clineuro.2012.01.011
Bruce McEwen
Experience Shapes the Brain Across the Lifecourse: Towards a Scientific Basis for Policy and Practice

Dr. McErwen research focuses in studying how stress and sex hormones act on the brain, taking an interdisciplinary approach that combines behavioral analysis and measurements of hormone levels with neurochemical, morphological, neuropharmacological, cellular and molecular methodologies and collaborative translational studies.

Recommendend Readings

  • Gray, J. D., Milner, T. a, & McEwen, B. S. (2013). Dynamic plasticity: the role of glucocorticoids, brain-derived neurotrophic factor and other trophic factors. Neuroscience, 239, 214–27. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2012.08.034
  • Karatsoreos, I. N., Karatoreos, I. N., & McEwen, B. S. (2013). Annual Research Review: The neurobiology and physiology of resilience and adaptation across the life course. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 54(4), 337–47. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12054
  • McEwen, B. S. (2013). The Brain on Stress: Toward an Integrative Approach to Brain, Body, and Behavior. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(6), 673–675. doi:10.1177/1745691613506907
  • McEwen, Bruce S, Eiland, L., Hunter, R. G., & Miller, M. M. (2012). Stress and anxiety: structural plasticity and epigenetic regulation as a consequence of stress. Neuropharmacology, 62(1), 3–12. doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2011.07.014
Eric Nestler
New insights into the neurobiology of depression

Dr. Nestler laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms of drug addiction and depression in animal models. Here they focus on the molecular and cellular changes that occur in regions of the brain important for reward and motivation, in response to chronic administration of a drug of abuse or chronic exposure to stress. He has a particular interest in long-lasting changes, that are mediated via alterations in gene expression and chromatin remodeling. His goal is to achieve results that will guide future efforts toward the development of more effective treatments for addiction and depression.

Recommendend Readings

  • Chaudhury, D., Walsh, J. J., Friedman, A. K., Juarez, B., Ku, S. M., Koo, J. W., … Han, M.-H. (2013). Rapid regulation of depression-related behaviours by control of midbrain dopamine neurons. Nature, 493(7433), 532–6. doi:10.1038/nature11713
  • Russo, S. J., Murrough, J. W., Han, M.-H., Charney, D. S., & Nestler, E. J. (2012). Neurobiology of resilience. Nature neuroscience, 15(11), 1475–84. doi:10.1038/nn.3234
  • Vialou, V., Feng, J., Robison, A. J., & Nestler, E. J. (2013). Epigenetic mechanisms of depression and antidepressant action. Annual review of pharmacology and toxicology (Vol. 53, pp. 59–87). doi:10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-010611-134540
Donald Pfaff
Effects of hormones on histone modifications in the brain

Dr. Pfaff concentrates his research in examining the cellular mechanisms by which the brain controls behavior, using neuroanatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiological methods. Specifically the Neurobiology and Behavior Laboratory explores steroid hormone effects on nerve cells as they direct natural and instinctive behaviors, as well as the influences of hormones and genes on generalized brain arousal.

Recommendend Readings

  • Gagnidze, K., Weil, Z. M., Faustino, L. C., Schaafsma, S. M., & Pfaff, D. W. (2013). Early histone modifications in the ventromedial hypothalamus and preoptic area following oestradiol administration. Journal of neuroendocrinology, 25(10), 939–55. doi:10.1111/jne.12085
  • Hunter, R. G., Murakami, G., Dewell, S., Seligsohn, M., Baker, M. E. R., Datson, N. a, … Pfaff, D. W. (2012). Acute stress and hippocampal histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylation, a retrotransposon silencing response. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(43), 17657–62. doi:10.1073/pnas.1215810109
  • Pfaff, D. W., Martin, E. M., & Faber, D. (2012). Origins of arousal: roles for medullary reticular neurons. Trends in neurosciences, 35(8), 468–76. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2012.04.008
Helen Scharfman
Estrogen and androgen actions in hippocampal area CA3 – relevance to hippocampal function, sex differences, cognition, and disease

Dr. Scharfman research interest has focused on mechanisms controlling neuronal excitability and plasticity and their implications for diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer, and women’s health.

Recommendend Readings

  • McClosky, D., & Scharfman, H. (2012). Progressive, potassium-sensitive epileptiform activity in hippocampal area CA3 of pilocarpine-treated rats with recurrent seizures. Epilepsy res., 97(718), 92–102. doi:10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2011.07.008.Progressive
  • Myers, C. E., Bermudez-Hernandez, K., & Scharfman, H. E. (2013). The influence of ectopic migration of granule cells into the hilus on dentate gyrus-CA3 function. PloS one, 8(6), e68208. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068208
  • Skucas, V. a, Duffy, A. M., Harte-Hargrove, L. C., Magagna-Poveda, A., Radman, T., Chakraborty, G., … Scharfman, H. E. (2013). Testosterone depletion in adult male rats increases mossy fiber transmission, LTP, and sprouting in area CA3 of hippocampus. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 33(6), 2338–55. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3857-12.2013
Anthony Sclafani
Traumatic brain injury: at the intersection of neuroscience and biomechanics

Dr. Morrison’s research interest focus in understanding the consequences of mechanical forces on the central nervous system, and to develop strategies to mitigate, and perhaps repair post-traumatic injury, investigation conducted in the Neurotrauma and repair laboratory.

Recommendend Readings

  • Hue, C. D., Cao, S., Haider, S. F., Vo, K. V, Effgen, G. B., Vogel, E., … Morrison, B. (2013). Blood-brain barrier dysfunction after primary blast injury in vitro. Journal of neurotrauma, 30(19), 1652–63. doi:10.1089/neu.2012.2773
  • Morrison, B., Elkin, B. S., Dollé, J.-P., & Yarmush, M. L. (2011). In vitro models of traumatic brain injury. Annual review of biomedical engineering (Vol. 13, pp. 91–126). doi:10.1146/annurev-bioeng-071910-124706
  • Review, B. T. (2007). The Brain Injury Epidemic.
Matthew Shapiro
Goal directed memory through cortical intention/recollection cycles

Dr. Shapiro is a part of the Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience of Memory Laboratory. Here he focus his research in how neural circuits processing is altered so that information is encoded, stored, and then later retrieved in appropriate circumstances. His lab samples neuronal activity from specific parts of the brain that are needed to perform a particular cognitive function, and attempt to decode the signal to understand how these systems need the neural networks to represent the information in memory and guide behavior.

Recommendend Readings

  • Ferbinteanu, J., & Shapiro, M. L. (2003). Prospective and retrospective memory coding in the hippocampus. Neuron, 40(6), 1227–39. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14687555
  • Kennedy, P. J., & Shapiro, M. L. (2004). Retrieving memories via internal context requires the hippocampus. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 24(31), 6979–85. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1388-04.2004
  • Rich, E. L., & Shapiro, M. L. (2007). Prelimbic/infralimbic inactivation impairs memory for multiple task switches, but not flexible selection of familiar tasks. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 27(17), 4747–55. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0369-07.2007
Miklos Toth
Adaptive programming of brain development and behavior across generations

Dr. Toth’s research centers around Non-DNA mediated transmission of behavior across generations, and maternal programming of brain development and adult emotional and cognitive behavior in health and disease.

Recommendend Readings

  • Gleason, G., Liu, B., Bruening, S., Zupan, B., Auerbach, a, Mark, W., Toth, M. (2010). The serotonin1A receptor gene as a genetic and prenatal maternal environmental factor in anxiety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(16), 7592–7. doi:10.1073/pnas.0914805107
  • Liu, B., Zupan, B., Laird, E., Klein, S., Gleason, G., Bozinoski, M., Toth, M. (2014). Maternal hematopoietic TNF, via milk chemokines, programs hippocampal development and memory. Nature neuroscience, 17(1), 97–105. doi:10.1038/nn.3596
  • Zupan, B., & Toth, M. (2008). Wild-type male offspring of fmr-1+/- mothers exhibit characteristics of the fragile X phenotype. Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 33(11), 2667–75. doi:10.1038/sj.npp.1301651
Sarah Woolley
Neural coding and perception of communication sounds in songbirds

Dr. Woolley’s main research interest is to understand how the brain forms neural representations of communication vocalizations, and how these neural representations lead to the perception of socially meaningful information. She uses behavioral, electrophysiological, pharmacological and computational data analysis techniques to investigate how vocal neural coding is shaped by developmental experience, learning, and species identity, and to study how the brain specially encodes the acoustic features that are critical for song recognition.

Recommendend Readings

  • Woolley, S. M. N., & Casseday, J. H. (2004). Response properties of single neurons in the zebra finch auditory midbrain: response patterns, frequency coding, intensity coding, and spike latencies. Journal of neurophysiology, 91(1), 136–51. doi:10.1152/jn.00633.2003
  • Woolley, S. M. N., Fremouw, T. E., Hsu, A., & Theunissen, F. E. (2005). Tuning for spectro-temporal modulations as a mechanism for auditory discrimination of natural sounds. Nature neuroscience, 8(10), 1371–9. doi:10.1038/nn1536
  • Woolley, S. M. N., Gill, P. R., & Theunissen, F. E. (2006). Stimulus-dependent auditory tuning results in synchronous population coding of vocalizations in the songbird midbrain. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 26(9), 2499–512. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3731-05.2006
Back to skip to quick links