Fall Semester 2010-2011

(Pending confirmation)  For Spring semester 2010-2011, the Behavioral, Computational, and Systems Neuroscience (BCS) Journal Club will meet on Tuesdays from 12:00 to 1:15 pm in Uris Hall 205. 

Papers and notes from previous semesters can be found in the BCS meeting archive.

The overarching theme this semester is Systems of neuronal representation and learning.  Adhering to this theme is not required, but is strongly recommended.  Please interpret it broadly. It is intended to include such diverse topics as:  the systematic regulation of synaptic plasticity, Bayesian representations (including sensory representations as probability estimates), Bayesian and/or energetic optimality in neural encoding or transmission, perceptual learning, decision-making (including reward harvesting), temporal difference learning/dopamine (Schultz model), synaptic rules that give rise to systems-level learning properties. 

To add yourself to the BCS-L mailing list, send a plain-text email to bcs-L-request@cornell.edu with the body of the message saying simply join.  The subject line doesn't matter.  Sending the message leave instead will unsubscribe you from the list.  See Cornell's Lyris HowTo page for further details. 

Please contact Thomas Cleland or David Smith with any questions.

26 January 2010:  Organizational Meeting

• No readings.

2 February 2010:  Thomas Cleland

• Fries, Nikolic, and Singer (2007).  The gamma cycle.  Trends in Neurosciences.  
• Optional/supplementary:  Dan and Poo (2004).  Spike Timing-Dependent Plasticity of Neural Circuits.  Review in Neuron.

In discussion, Patrick brought up Li et al (2004), a paper from Mu-ming Poo's lab showing that those presynaptic neurons that spike early, and that consequently (via STDP) have their synaptic weights upon a postsynaptic neuron strengthened, are also themselves rendered more excitable. That is, by this mechanism STDP can "work on the presynaptic neuron" as well as on its output synapse. The net effect of this can be to durably group a set of early-firing neurons together into a fully synchronous ensemble evoking activity in that postsynaptic cell.

9 February 2010:  Christina Sill

• Hasselmo, Giocomo, and Yoshida (2009).  Cellular dynamical mechanisms for encoding the time and place of events along spatiotemporal trajectories in episodic memory.  Behavioral Brain Research. 
  

16 February 2010:  Patrick Gill

• Fusi, Drews, and Abbott (2005).  Cascade models of synaptically stored memories.  Neuron.

23 February 2010:  NO MEETING

•  No Meeting.  If you come, nobody will be there except for you. 

2 March 2010:  Helene Porte

• Mahon, Vautrelle, et al (2006). Distinct patterns of striatal medium spiny neuron activity during the natural sleep-wake cycle.  J. Neuroscience.
  

9 March 2010:  Sasha Devore

• Schroeder et al. (2008).  Neuronal oscillations and visual amplification of speech.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 

In discussion, Guoshi brought up this modeling paper analyzing the property that visual input (lip reading) facilitates auditory input most effectively under moderate noise conditions. 

16 March 2010:  Thomas Cleland

• Fries (2005).  A mechanism for cognitive dynamics:  neuronal communication through neuronal coherence.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 

• Schoffelen, Oostenveld, and Fries (2005).  Neuronal coherence as a mechanism of effective corticospinal interaction.  Science. 

23 March 2010:  SPRING BREAK

• No meeting, because it's spring break.  But to keep you in good form, take a look at this paper that Shane found.  Contrary to what I presented at the beginning of the semester, these authors argue that extracellular fields per se CAN directly affect neuronal activity.  If this effect is sufficiently true to matter, this would provide another mechanism by which neuronal populations can be coordinated (or, in some circumstances, an additional problem to be overcome in trying to coordinate them).  Maybe we'll get a chance to talk about it later this semester. 

30 March 2010:  SiWei Luo

• Kalenscher et al. (2010). Reward-associated gamma oscillations in ventral striatum are regionally differentiated and modulate local firing activity.  Journal of Neurophysiology.
  

6 April 2010:  Guoshi Li

• David et al (2009).  Specific entrainment of mitral cells during gamma oscillation in the rat olfactory bulb.  PLoS Computational Biology. 

13 April 2010:  Anuttama Sheela Mohan

• Breton-Provencher et al (2009).  Interneurons produced in adulthood are required for the normal functioning of the olfactory bulb network and for the execution of selected olfactory behaviors.  Journal of Neuroscience.

20 April 2010:  Shane Peace and Ben Johnson

• Results from planar-array multielectrode slice recordings of gamma oscillations in the mouse olfactory bulb.
  

27 April 2010:  NO MEETING

• No Meeting.  You may wonder where the rest of us are.  We are not at journal club, because there is none today.

4 May 2010:  Mike Wojnowicz

• Rougier et al (2005).  Prefrontal cortex and flexible cognitive control: rules without symbols.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.