Institute of Neuroscience Menu

Abstract: Neural representations of sensory stimuli are modulated by a variety of contextual factors, such as information on other stimuli present in the environment, the novelty or familiarity of the sensory inputs, and behavioral goals. Despite decades of attention in systems neuroscience, many questions persist regarding how sensory codes adapt to these different variables. Here, we study this problem in the olfactory system, which combines the advantages of being highly compact, allowing us to develop solvable theoretical models, and highly conserved, allowing us to derive general principles that are testable in relatively simple animal models (such as the locust or the fly) but are widely applicable across animal species, from insects to vertebrates. Our approach is based on the information-theoretic premise that optimal codes strive to maximize the overall entropy (decodability) of neural representations while minimizing neural costs. A novel feature of our theory is that it incorporates contextual feedback: this allows us to predict how optimal odor representations are modulated by top-down signals that represent the overall multi-sensory environment. We also show that the emerging optimal solutions can be implemented at the level of neural circuits through neuroplasticity. This result reconnects our theoretical findings to biologically plausible processes, thus bridging normative and mechanistic levels of analysis. Our theory is generalizable to other sensory systems and establishes a conceptual foundation for studying sensory coding associated with behavior.

https://neuroscience.wustl.edu/people/gaia-tavoni-phd/ 

https://sites.wustl.edu/tavonilab/ 

https://zywanglab.com/

NIH Career Symposium May 8-10 (all virtual)

The OITE is hosting the NIH Career Symposium, and hope you can encourage your postdocs, fellows, and grad students.  They will have the opportunity to hear from over 300 speakers (80%+ are NIH alum) in all career fields; academics, government, industry and non-profits. Valuable for trainees who know their career path and want hear what hiring committees are looking for and trainees who are still exploring their options. Trainees are welcome to come for just the sessions that interest them or the entire day.

• The full agenda is Here
• See the Speakers
• Registration is here (the event is free). https://whova.com/portal/registration/nihca_202305/

NIH Career Symposium May 8-10 (all virtual)

The OITE is hosting the NIH Career Symposium, and hope you can encourage your postdocs, fellows, and grad students.  They will have the opportunity to hear from over 300 speakers (80%+ are NIH alum) in all career fields; academics, government, industry and non-profits. Valuable for trainees who know their career path and want hear what hiring committees are looking for and trainees who are still exploring their options. Trainees are welcome to come for just the sessions that interest them or the entire day.

• The full agenda is Here
• See the Speakers
• Registration is here (the event is free). https://whova.com/portal/registration/nihca_202305/

NIH Career Symposium May 8-10 (all virtual)

The OITE is hosting the NIH Career Symposium, and hope you can encourage your postdocs, fellows, and grad students.  They will have the opportunity to hear from over 300 speakers (80%+ are NIH alum) in all career fields; academics, government, industry and non-profits. Valuable for trainees who know their career path and want hear what hiring committees are looking for and trainees who are still exploring their options. Trainees are welcome to come for just the sessions that interest them or the entire day.

• The full agenda is Here
• See the Speakers
• Registration is here (the event is free). https://whova.com/portal/registration/nihca_202305/

Abstract

Cortical atrophy underlies a wide variety of brain diseases including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorder.  Recently, our group discovered that psychedelics and related molecules, such as DMT, LSD, and MDMA, rapidly promote the growth of cortical neurons, providing a potential explanation for their long-lasting therapeutic effects after a single dose.  However, these first-generation compounds suffer from one or more issues that limit their clinical scalability including hallucinogenic effects, cardiotoxicity, and psychostimulant properties.  I will discuss the development of chemical and molecular tools for studying the mechanism(s) of action of psychedelics as well as our efforts to engineer non-hallucinogenic analogs of these compounds that produce similar sustained therapeutic behavioral effects after a single administration.  Understanding the fundamental biochemical mechanisms that give rise to compound-induced neuroplasticity will be essential for developing safer and more effective neurotherapeutics for a variety of brain disorders.

Bio

Professor David E. Olson studied chemistry and neuroscience at Stanford University and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.  His academic lab at the University of California, Davis discovered that psychedelics promote structural and functional neuroplasticity in the cortex.  They coined the term “psychoplastogen” to describe small molecules that produce rapid and long-lasting psychedelic- and ketamine-like effects on neuronal structure after a single dose, and they invented the first non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens capable of producing sustained therapeutic effects in preclinical models after a single dose.  Professor Olson's expertise spans central nervous system medicinal chemistry, molecular/cellular neurobiology, and behavioral neuropharmacology.  He is an associate editor at ACS Chemical Neuroscience and has received numerous awards including the Jordi Folch-Pi Award from the American Society for Neurochemistry, the Sigma Xi Young Investigator Award, the Life Young Investigator Award, Sacramento Business Journal's 40 Under 40, among many others.  He is the founding director of the UC Davis Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics and is a co-founder and the Chief Innovation Officer of Delix Therapeutics.

olsonlab.org

Key Publications

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867421003743

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-3008-z

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/pdf/S2211-1247(18)30755-1.pdf

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf0435

Note this seminar will be held a different location, and on a different day of the week than typical ION Seminars: Tuesday, May 2nd at 4pm in LISB 217

Visual information from the retina targets multiple brain regions, forming two major pathways going through either the dorsal lateral geniculate of the thalamus or the superior colliculus. To this date, the respective role of each pathway remains unknown and a clear picture of the orchestrated process that is vision is still lacking. Here I will present recent findings toward a better understanding of how distinct visual features are represented in the superior colliculus and a new approach to link molecularly defined cell-types to function.  I will also discuss recent progress toward the development of a comparative approach using mice and tree shrews. Such knowledge is a required steppingstone to advance both therapeutic approaches to the repair of vision loss, but also to understand most psychiatric conditions in which sensory processing is altered.

sites.google.com/view/savierlab