Connectionists: SCGB Global Postdoc/Student Meeting: Tuesday, April 27th by C. Ann Duan

[Laura Long]

The Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain (SCGB) hosts postdoc/student
meetings to bring together trainees interested in neural coding and
dynamics to discuss ideas and data. In addition to regional meetings in New
York, Boston, and the Bay Area, SCGB holds a Global virtual series to
connect systems and computational neuroscientists across the world. We
would love to see you at this month's Global meeting! Please see event
details and Zoom link below.



SCGB Global Postdoc/Student Meeting:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scgb-global-postdocstudent-meeting-tickets-146846340357


Tuesday, April 27th, 9am Eastern Time

https://simonsfoundation.zoom.us/j/93633603374?pwd=LytrcVp6MWlPY1dkb2UvbUJWQ3pvQT09

    Passcode: 989252



C. Ann Duan

SCGB Postdoctoral Fellow, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Incoming Group Leader, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

*Cortical and collicular contributions to decision making in rats and mice*

A central goal of behavioral neuroscience is to expose general principles
of neural computation that give rise to cognition. Until recently,
cognitive functions were thought to mainly rely on cortical areas such as
the frontal cortex, while “old” subcortical areas, such as the midbrain
superior colliculus (SC), have mostly been associated with sensorimotor
processing. Based on these earlier work, we expected the SC to be passively
inhibited while animals avoided unwanted reflexive actions. We were
surprised to find that the SC played an active and pivotal role in
suppressing context-inappropriate behaviors. Since then, my research has
focused on understanding how the SC, in coordination with cortex,
implements flexible decision making. My talk will cover work in two
different decision-making tasks: flexible sensorimotor routing in
freely-moving rats and motor planning in head-fixed mice. Using
electrophysiology, optogenetics, pathway-specific two-photon calcium
imaging, and computational modeling, we found that the SC is particularly
important during the memory period in both tasks, when the context
information or motor planning signals need to be maintained in the brain in
the absence of sensory input and motor output. The participation of SC
seems to increase as cognitive demand increases in both behaviors.
Together, our experimental and computational work reveal the SC as a key
node in the distributed cortico-subcortical network underlying flexible
behaviors, and make surprising predictions for how decision making is
implemented in brain circuits.


*Please note that this meeting is open to all neuroscience postdocs and PhD
students, regardless of location or SCGB affiliation (sorry, no PIs). *After
Q&A with the speaker, we will open breakout rooms for anyone interested in
staying to chat, network, or further discuss the talk. In addition to these
breakouts, SCGB Scientific Staff will be available for "office hours" to
chat and answer questions about SCGB programs and support.

Registration on EventBrite is encouraged but not required:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scgb-global-postdocstudent-meeting-tickets-146846340357
Please contact Laura Long at llong at simonsfoundation.org with any questions.
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