Distinguished Kavli Lecture
14th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Mark Schnitzer, 14 June 2013
Title:“Visualizing the neuronal orchestra: Imaging the dynamics of large-scale neural ensembles in freely behaving mice.”
Date: Friday 14 June 2013
Time: 14:00
Location: MTFS, CNC/Kavli Institute, seminar room, 5th floor
16th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Pico Caroni 28 June 2013
Title: “Adjusting brain circuits for learning and memory.”
I will provide evidence that the configuration of hippocampal and cortical Parvalbumin interneuron networks is adjusted in the adult upon learning, to enhance memory retrieval and support incremental learning. The underlying mechanism involves synaptic rearrangements in a specific VIP-PV interneuron microcircuit module.
Date: Friday 28 June 2013
Time: 14:00
Location: MTA, MTFS, Faculty of Medicine
13th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Sten Grillner, 26 February 2013
Title: Neural Mechanisms underlying the selection of action – from microcircuits to behaviour.
Tuesday 26. February 2013
Time: 14.15 - 15.15
Location: MTA, MTFS, Faculty of Medicine
12th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Charles F. Stevens, 7 September 2012
Title: Maps and anti-maps in the brain.
Friday 7 September – 14:00
Location: MTFS, CBM/Kavli, seminar room, 5th floor.
Many regions in the brain can be classified as having either a map or an anti-map. In maps, the location of active neurons tells you what type of information the neuron represents. For example, in the primary visual cortex, the position of an active neuron determines what information about the visual scene that cell carries (for example, its receptive field location, orientation preference, and characteristic spatial frequency).
A region with an anti-map is, in a sense, opposite because knowing the location of an active neuron is completely unrelated to the information the neuron represents. Indeed, in a region with an anti-map, the information available is distributed throughout the region, and this information can be recovered by measuring the activity levels of any neurons, irrespective of their position, if you look at some minimum number.
I will explain why anti-maps can exist and how they are generated, and will give an example – from the olfactory system – of the properties exhibited by a specific anti-map. Finally, I will say under what circumstances anti-maps are useful and suggest that, in addition to the olfactory system, they are present in the hippocampus, cerebellum, and perhaps other parts of the brain.
11th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Giacomo Rizzolatti, 15 June 2012
Title: How the actions of others are understood
Friday 15 June - 14:15
Women and Children's Centre
Olav Kyrres St. 11 (Øya)
Auditorium KBA
You see a stranger stub her toe and you immediately flinch in sympathy. You watch a child laugh and can’t help but smile yourself. This ability to instinctively and immediately understand what other people are experiencing and to physically react has long baffled neuroscientists, psychologists,
and philosophers alike, but no more. The fascinating explanation: brain cells called mirror neurons.
Giacomo Rizzolatti was born in Kiev. He studied in Padua where he graduated in Medicine and Neurology. He received his training in physiology at the University of Pisa and in psychology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. He has spent most of his scientific career at the University of Parma where he is currently Professor of Human Physiology.The main focus of Rizzolatti’s research concerns the motor system and its role in cognitive functions. His research in the 1980s and 1990s led to the discovery of mirror neurons.
10th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professor Oscar Marín and Assistant Professor Beatriz Rico, 1st June 2012
Distinguished Kavli Lecture with Professor Oscar Marín and Assistant Professor Beatriz Rico on 1 June
Professor Oscar Marín and Assistant Professor Beatriz Rico will give a lecture on 1 June 2012 at 13:00 and 13:45
Title: Assembly of cortical circuits
Medical-Technical Research Centre (MTFS)
Auditorium, 1st floor
Friday 1 June – 13:00
One of the major goals of neuroscience is to understand how brain function emerges through the assembly of specific neuronal circuits. This is particularly challenging for the cerebral cortex, where dozens, perhaps hundreds of different classes of neurons converge during development to establish specific microcircuits. In simple terms, complex brain circuitries such as those present in the cerebral cortex have evolved as hierarchical networks of excitatory and inhibitory neurons.
In this joint lecture, Oscar Marín will present data on the mechanisms regulating the basic organization of the cerebral cortex. In particular, he will describe a novel mechanism that controls the even distribution of neurons in the developing brain. In the second part of this lecture, Beatriz Rico will summarize recent work on the molecular mechanisms controlling the wiring of specific populations of cortical inhibitory neurons. Specifically, she will describe how schizophrenia susceptibility genes influence the formation of inhibitory synapses, and how abnormal development of these connections disrupt cortical function.
9th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professor Linda Buck, 16th of March 2012
Professor Linda Buck from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will hold a lecture on 16th March 2012 at 14:30.
Title: “Deconstructing Smell.”
How do we differentiate thousands of distinct odours and how do our brains perceive and remember them?
Humans and other mammals detect as many as 10,000 or more chemicals in the external
environment – but how do they actually do it? The brain must also translate
the detection of those into different smells, such as rose or garlic. Finally, pheromones
and other social cues elicit hormonal changes and instinctive behaviours
in animals. The illumination of the neural circuits underlying these effects may
ultimately provide clues to molecular mechanisms that influence basic drives
and emotional states in humans.
Linda B Buck won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with her colleague
Richard Axel in 1994 for the discovery of odorant receptors and the organization
of the olfactory system. Buck used the odour receptor genes to figure
out how the identities of different odours are encoded at the molecular level
and in the brain to produce the perception of distinct odours. She is currently a
Member of the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
and an Affiliate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of
Washington.
Location: Women and Children´s Centre, Auditorium, 1st floor.
8th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professor Michael Hausser, 9th of December 2011
Professor Michael Hausser from University College London will hold a lecture on 9th of December 2011 at 14:30.
Title: “Dendritic computation.”
Abstract: The computational power of dendrites has long been predicted using modelling approaches, but actual experimental examples of how dendrites solve computational problems are rare.
I will describe results from experiments combining patch-clamp recordings with two photon imaging and glutamate uncaging that demonstrate how the dendrites of cortical pyramidal neurons can decode spatiotemporal sequences of synaptic inputs, and can implement different temporal coding strategies along single dendrites.
Location: MTFS, CBM/Kavli, seminar room, 5th floor.
7th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professor Carla Shatz, 16th of September 2011
Professor Carla Shatz from Stanford University, USA, will hold a lecture on 16th of September 2011 at 15:00.
Title: “Moonlighting Immune Genes and Brain Circuit Tuning during Developmental Critical Periods.”
Abstract: Major histocompatibility class I proteins and an innate immune receptor, both expressed in neurons, play an unexpected role in putting the brakes on synaptic plasticity.
Location: MTFS, CBM/Kavli, seminar room, 5th floor.
6th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professor Tobias Bonhoeffer, 8th of July 2011
Professor Tobias Bonhoeffer from Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried, Germany, will hold a lecture on 8th of July 2011 at 13:30.
Title:“How Activity Changes Synapses in the Mammalian Brain.”
Abstract:
“One of the most fundamental properties of the brain is its ability to adapt rapidly to environmental changes. This is achieved mainly by changes in the connectivity between individual nerve cells. Synapses can be modulated in their strength by a variety of different mechanisms. We have investigated a number of these mechanisms, ranging from homeostatic control of synaptic efficacy to morphological manifestations of synaptic strengthening or weakening, and the role of calcium in these processes. Yet, while we are beginning to understand the cellular mechanisms underlying synaptic changes, it is important to consider the functional implications of synaptic plasticity in the intact brain. We are therefore applying new imaging methods to investigate the effects of experience on synaptic changes in cortical circuits. In particular, in vivo two-photon microscopy has enabled us to study morphological as well as functional plasticity at the level of individual neurons in the neocortex of anesthetized and lately also behaving animals. These experiments are beginning to close the gap between traditional cellular and systems studies, and they will enable us to obtain a much more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of synaptic plasticity and its role in cortical function and ultimately behavior.”
Location: MTFS, CBM/Kavli, seminar room, 5th floor.
5th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professor Eric Kandel, 23rd May 2011
Professor Eric Kandel from Columbia University, USA, will hold a lecture on 23rd May 2011 at 15:00.
Title: “The Multiple Roles of Different Classes of Small RNAs in Regulating Memory Related Synaptic Plasticity.”
Abstract:
Small RNAs are a class of highly conserved, short noncoding RNAs that selectively and reversibly silence target mRNAs. In this lecture, Eric Kandel shows the importance of two classes
of small RNAs for precise spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression in synaptic plasticity and memory formation.
Location: Faculty of medicine, MTFS, Auditorium 1st floor.
Eric R. Kandel is an Austrian-born American neuroscientist who was a recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cellular basis of memory. Kandel will receive an honorary doctorate from NTNU on 24 May 2011.
4th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Assistant Professor Doris Tsao, 3rd of May 2011
Assistant Professor Doris Tsao from Harvard University will hold a lecture on 3rd of May 2011 at 15:00.
Title: “The neural machinery for processing faces.”
Abstract:
Tackling the problem of how the brain attaches a particular visual
form to a set of spots, curves, and shadings is incredibly difficult
due to the almost infinite number of possible forms, and the huge
cortical territory dedicated to encoding visual form. For making
headway into this problem, it would be ideal if there were a small
piece of brain specialized to encode a single visual form. This situation,
surprisingly, exists:functional magnetic resonance imaging reveals six regions
in the macaque temporal lobe and three regions in the frontal lobe that show
strongly increased blood flow in response to faces compared to images
of other objects. In my talk, I will discuss the properties of cells
within different face-selective regions, and how they lead to an
invariant representation of facial identity.
Location: MTFS, Kavli Institute/CBM, seminar room, 5th floor, south.
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3rd Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professor Eric Kandel and Professor Denise Kandel, 9th of September 2010
Professor Eric Kandel and Professor Denise Kandel will hold a lecture on 9th of September 2010 at 12:30.
Title:” There is Life after the Nobel Prize: AMolecular Genetic. Approach to the Gateway Hypothesis of Drug Abuse.”
Location: The Natural Science Building, Auditorium R1.
2nd Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professor Mark Bear, 18th of March 2010
Professor Mark Bear from Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, will hold a lecture on 18th of March 2010 at 18:00.
Title: “A cure for fragile x? - Fulfilling the promise of molecular medicine in a developmental brain disorder.”
Location: The Student Society Building.
1st Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professpr Eric Kandel, 10th september 2008
Professor Eric Kandel from Columbia University,USA, will hold a lecture on 10th of september 2008 at 18:30.
Title: “We are what we remember - Memory and the biological basis of individuality.”
Location: The Student Society Building
