Fall Semester 2012-2013
For Fall Semester 2012-2013, the Behavioral, Computational, and Systems Neuroscience (BCS) Journal Club will meet on Tuesdays from 11:45 to 1:00 pm in Uris Hall 205.
Papers and notes from previous semesters can be found in the BCS meeting archive.
The semester's theme is assessing and comparing methods of inference regarding neural activity*. * How do local field potential (LFP) data relate to data from studies based on spike trains, BOLD, fMRI, calcium or voltage-dependent optical signals, immediate-early gene histology, or other measures of neural activity? What artifacts may arise from the use of particular techniques and do they threaten the supposed findings of a given paper? This has particular importance for relatively complex or new techniques -- e.g., studies of dynamical interregional communication in the brain, frequency-domain analyses, and other techniques that may be easily misinterpreted or overtrusted. As always, please interpret BCS themes broadly -- they are meant to focus rather than to exclude.
We are considering decision making and 'neuroeconomics' as a possible organizing theme for Spring 2013.
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BCS will continue its "minimal Powerpoint" policy of Fall 2011. In order to make discussions more engaging and less formal, we encourage presentations to be primarily "chalk talks", in which concepts are sketched rather than figures shown. Mixed media are OK too, in which a complex figure can be put onto a slide or simply zoomed up on from the PDF file of the original paper, but drawing the figure tends to convey stronger understanding than does flashing a figure up on the wall. We also emphasize that you do not have to present papers in their entirety, much less multiple papers. Having everybody read up thoroughly on something small and focused usually makes for a better experience than everybody skimming one or more full papers. You may want to present only one exciting concept, exemplified by one or more figures drawn from one or more papers. That's great. Focus on the concepts, and don't feel compelled to master every detail of every paper that you want to include in your presentation. Do what you feel is best, but please do not just put the figures of a paper into a slide show and describe the paper.
That said, presenting your own work is always welcome, and in this case often it will be in Powerpoint format and formally organized. Not a problem.
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.
You can enroll in the BCS Journal Club for graduate or undergraduate credit (1-2 CR, S/U) as a Topics in Biopsychology seminar: PSYCH 6271-101 (class number 8699). The course requires that you present at least once during the semester and participate actively overall. You are welcome to attend without enrolling, of course, but we do appreciate you enrolling if you plan to attend the whole semester and to present.
Please contact Thomas Cleland or David Smith with any questions.
4 September 2012: Organizational Meeting
- No readings. Please come prepared to choose a day to present from the many opportunities below.
11 September 2012: Dave Bulkin
- Stimulus contrast modulates functional connectivity in visual cortex. Nauhaus I, Busse L, Carandini M, Ringach DL. Nat Neurosci. 2009.
- Network Rhythms Influence the Relationship between Spike-Triggered Local Field Potential and Functional Connectivity. Ray S, Maunsell JH. J Neurosci. 2011.
- Robustness of traveling waves in ongoing activity of visual cortex. Nauhaus I, Busse L, Ringach DL, Carandini M. J Neurosci. 2012.
18 September 2012: No meeting this week. Use the found time for something important or fun!
25 September 2012: Adam Miller
- Jason M. Scimeca and David Badre, 2012, Striatal Contributions to Declarative Memory Retrieval. Neuron.
- David J Foster and James J Knierim, 2012, Sequence learning and the role of the hippocampus in rodent navigation. Current Opinion in Neurobiology.
2 October 2012: Sasha DeVore
9 October 2012: NEUROSCIENCE DAY
- Cornell's Neuroscience Program sponsors the annual Neuroscience Day events today.
- 9 am - 6 pm, in the Atrium/Morison Room of Corson-Mudd Hall
16 October 2012: SFN
- SFN Conference - no BCS meeting
23 October 2012: Matt Law
30 October 2012: Lindsey Vedder
- Lee H, Ghim J-W, Kim H, Lee D, Jung MW (2012). Hippocampal neural correlates for values of experienced events. J. Neurosci. 32(43):15053-15065.
6 November 2012: SiWei Luo
- Okuno H (2011). Regulation and function of immediate-early genes in the brain: beyond neuronal activity markers. Neuroscience Research 69:175-186.
- Katche C, Goldin A, Gonzalez C, Bekinschtein P, Medina JG (2012). Maintenance of long-term memory storage is dependent on late posttraining Egr-1 expression.
- Free Bonus Paper: Katche C, Bekinschtein P, Slipczuk L, Goldin A, Izquierdo IA, Cammarota M, Medina JH (2009) Delayed wave of c-Fos expression in the dorsal hippocampus involved specifically in persistence of long-term memory storage. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107(1):349-354.
13 November 2012: Rachel Swanson
- J. Fell and N. Axmacher (2011) The role of phase synchronization in memory processes. Nature Reviews, 12:105-118.
20 November 2012: Guoshi Li
- TBD
27 November 2012: Matt Lewis
- Andrew A. Pierce and Allison W. Xu (2010). De Novo Neurogenesis in Adult Hypothalamus as a Compensatory Mechanism to Regulate Energy Balance. Journal of Neuroscience 30(2):723--30.
- Daniel A Lee, et al (2012). Tanycytes of the hypothalamic median eminence form a diet-responsive neurogenic niche. Nature Neuroscience 15(5):700-2.
- Maia V. Kokoeva, Huali Yin, Jeffrey S. Flier (2005). Neurogenesis in the Hypothalamus of Adult Mice: Potential Role in Energy Balance. Science 310:679-683.